Boris Johnson snatched a reporter's phone when he tried to show him a photo of a 4-year-old boy forced to lie on a hospital floor

ITV

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson snatched a reporter's phone when the reporter tried to show him a photo of a 4-year-old boy who was forced to lie on a pile of coats in a hospital.
• The prime minister refused to look at the photo and then took the phone from the reporter and put it in his pocket.
• Recent statistics have indicated that the UK's National Health Service is struggling to cope.
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LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson snatched a reporter's phone after the reporter tried to show him a picture of a 4-year-old boy who was forced to sleep on a hospital floor.

The prime minister refused to look at the photo, grabbed the reporter's phone, and put it in his pocket for part of the interview.

The boy, Jack Williment-Barr, was reportedly forced to lie on a pile of coats in a hospital in Leeds while waiting for more than four hours to be seen earlier this month. He was thought to have pneumonia.

Watch the footage of Johnson:

Johnson said he had "every sympathy" for the child, whose picture was published by the Daily Mirror on Sunday, but didn't look at the photo and then took the phone from ITV News' Joe Pike and put it in his pocket.

After being pushed repeatedly by Pike, Johnson looked and said, "It's a terrible, terrible photo, and I apologise, obviously, to the family."

Responding to the footage, Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: "Refusing to even look at an image of a child suffering because of Conservative cuts to the NHS is a new low for Boris Johnson. It's clear he could not care less.

"Don't give this disgrace of a man five more years of driving our NHS into the ground. Sick toddlers like Jack deserve so much better."

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