Video resurfaces of Boris Johnson being branded 'nasty piece of work'

Eddie Mair interviews Boris Johnson for The Andrew Marr Show. Photograph: BBC. - Credit: Archant

A news interview with Boris Johnson from 2013 has resurfaced in which the interviewer puts it to him: ‘You’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you?’

The 2013 clip shows BBC’s Eddie Mair grilling Boris Johnson just before a TV documentary, Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise, was to be aired.

It was recently re-shared on Twitter by author Giles Paley-Phillips, who said: “This interview should tell you all you need to know about Boris Johnson.”

In the interview, Mair raises several episodes of less-than-honourable behaviour by Johnson.

Boris Johnson was called a ‘nasty piece of work’ in interview footage from 2003 that has been re-circulated in the Tory leadership race. Picture: BBC – Credit: BBC

“The Times let you go after you made up a quote. Why did you make up a quote?” said Mair.

Johnson said these are “big terms” for what had actually happened and that he had “mildly sandpapered” the quote which he said had been from his godfather, historian Colin Lucas.

Mair then turned to the time that Johnson lied to Michael Howard about having had an affair.

He was sacked from his post as shadow arts minister, but according to the Telegraph had already been planning to resign over his comments about the city of Liverpool, saying the city was wallowing in “victim status” following the Hillsborough disaster and the murder of Ken Bigley.

But Johnson refused to go into the matter, saying: “Why should I?”.

Finally Mair moves on to a recording of a telephone conversation between Johnson and his pal Darius Guppy, who was asking the politician for a journalist’s address so he could be beaten up.

WATCH: Boris Johnson accused of ‘Trumpian tactics’ as he kicks off leadership bid“You tell your friend that you will supply the address. What does that say about you, Boris Johnson?” asks Mair.

“Making up quotes, lying to your party leader, wanting to be part of someone being physically assaulted – you’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you?”

Johnson then tries to deny the examples given, saying he had tried to “humour” his friend and that nothing happened as a result of the call. “People say all sorts of fantastical things whilst they’re talking to their friends,” he said.