The New European has waylaid the prime minister during one of his campaigning walkabouts in an attempt to get some answers on the Russia report.
Boris Johnson had granted a short interview to regional title the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) in a bid to improve Tory chances in the Norfolk and Suffolk region.
The TNE team found him at he was leaving the building, which we share with EDP, and presented him with some quality reading – a copy of the TNE ‘Russian Dolts’ issue, which depicts the prime minister as a Matryoshka doll containing Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Johnson initially seemed pleased to meet reporter Mia Jankowicz, but as soon as he laid eyes on the paper he hastily tried to make an exit, saying: “Thank you, thank you … I’ll look at it, um …”
He had to be persuaded to take his copy of the TNE away with him.
He had already turned away by the time Jankowicz asked: “What’s in the Russia report, Boris Johnson?
“Do you have any answers for us at all?”
The report by the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, into allegations of Russian interference into British politics, has been cleared for publication by intelligence agencies.
The prime minister, who received the report on October 17, has claimed that the ordinary process of its release would see it come out well after the election.
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve disagrees, stating that it should have taken no more than 10 days to clear the prime minister’s desk – the last phase in a long process of bringing the report to light.
But now it seems as though Johnson has missed yet another opportunity to offer the public some transparency on an issue of national urgency before the country goes to the polls.
Perhaps he won’t miss the opportunity to subscribe to the TNE, though.
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