The guest chair in an LBC studio was bolted to the floor after Boris Johnson tried to duck cameras during difficult interviews while he was London mayor, it has emerged.
LBC Radio also films politicians and other guests when they are interviewed and sometimes shares clips of the interviews online.
Mr Johnson was regularly interviewed in a segment of journalist Nick Ferrari’s show called ‘Ask Boris’ when he was in City Hall from 2008 to 2016.
In an interview with the Radio Times, Mr Ferrari revealed that producers resorted to screwing the guest chair to the floor after the former mayor repeatedly drifted “off camera”.
“That is the Boris bolt,” Mr Ferrari said. “[When we were] doing the Ask Boris shows and he was mayor, he’d be asked why he was cancelling the 63 bus and he’d just drift off camera.”
The journalist also revealed that Dame Cressida Dick, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, once also tried to evade the camera but found the chair wouldn’t budge.
“We do this in our interview rooms so our officers don’t get hit over the head with them,” Dame Cressida replied when Mr Ferrari explained why the chair was nailed down.
During the interview, Mr Ferrari also said that initially had been a fan of Mr Johnson and admitted to liking Keir Starmer, the Labour leader.
‘That is the Boris bolt’— (PA)
When asked if government ministers got a free pass on his show, Mr Ferrari said “not at all”. He appeared to suggest that he would be tougher on Labour politicians than Conservative ones if the opposition wins the next election, expected in spring or autumn this year.
“[If Labour win the next election] it will probably mean that I can be a little bit more on the front foot and try to hit a few more sixes and fours, rather than just doing a little tickle for a couple of runs,” he said.
It was not the first time Mr Johnson, who stood down as an MP last year following a slew of scandals during his premiership, tried to avoid difficult questions.
In December 2019 he hid in a fridge while being pursued by a TV reporter attempting to interview him on the eve of the general election.
The prime minister had been on an early morning milk round in Leeds when he was confronted by Good Morning Britain’s Jonathan Swain about his “promise to talk to Piers [Morgan] and Susanna [Reid]”.
“I’ll be with you in a second,” Mr Johnson replied, before escaping into a large fridge.
Conservative sources later told The Guardian that the prime minister was “categorically not hiding” in the fridge and claimed he was instead being prepped for a different interview.
Mr Johnson had been accused of avoiding media scrutiny during this election campaign after he refused to take part in a one-on-one interview with former BBC journalist Andrew Neil.
