Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been blasted for his 'tone deaf' response to the heartbreaking plight of a 77-year-old widow forced to ride public buses to keep warm because she can't pay her rising energy bills. The PM made the much criticised remark during an interview with Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain earlier today (Tuesday, May 3).
Following a discussion about the situation in Ukraine, the chat soon turned to the cost of living crisis, with Reid bringing up some examples of how people in the UK are struggling. One of which is pensioner Elsie who receives a pension of £170 a week and whose energy bills have soared from £17 to £85 a month, totalling an additional £816 a year.
She told Johnson: "To cut down on spending, Elsie has resorted to now eating one meal a day. She's 77 years-old, she's losing weight. She goes to the supermarket at the end of the day to get discounted yellow sticker items and she gets up early in the morning to use her Freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home."
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To which the Prime Minister responded with a reminder that "the 24-hour Freedom Bus Pass was something that I actually introduced." "Marvellous, so Elsie should be grateful to you for her bus pass?" Reid fired back.
The confrontational interview was Johnson's first with GMB in five years - the last time Reid and her former co-presenter Piers Morgan attempted to grill the PM on camera he appeared to retreat inside an industrial-sized fridge whilst on a visit to a West Yorkshire dairy in December 2019. And today's face-off has been widely praised online as having been "lethally effective".
"Boris taking credit for cheap bus fares in the face of being told an old lady uses buses to keep warm rather than heat her home is tragic and hilariously tone deaf in equal measure," said one viewer.
Another posted: "Shocked and on the verge of tears hearing the story of Elsie. It’s criminal that Boris Johnson isn’t doing anything to change this #GMB."
The PM was also questioned on whether he thinks he is an 'honest' leader amid the ongoing Partygate scandal.
Johnson said: “I do my best to represent faithfully and accurately what I believe and sometimes it's controversial and sometimes it offends people, but that’s what I do."
Pushed on whether he lies, he answered: "If you’re talking about the statements I made in the House of Commons, I was inadvertently... I was wrong and I've apologised for that. But look at what we have done."
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