Boris Johnson's BBC apology interview in full
‘I apologise to everybody’: Boris Johnson blustered and grovelled in seven-minute long excruciating BBC interview… before Sajid Javid triggered resignation plot
Two of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top ministers resigned this evening while a grovelling interview by the Prime Minister was airing on BBC.
Mr Johnson was addressing claims he had been told ‘in person’ about a past ‘formal complaint’ concerning shamed MP Chris Pincher.
Questions had been asked about what the Prime Minister knew of Mr Pincher’s conduct before handing him a Government role.
At the same time Sajid Javid quit as Health Secretary and less than ten minutes later Rishi Sunak announced his resignation.
Below is the full transcript of Boris Johnson’s answers.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s grovelling interview about the Chris Pincher scandal was airing while Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid both quit their roles
Q: Prime Minister, do you accept it was a grave error to appoint Chris Pincher to your Government?
Prime Minister: Yes, I think it was a mistake and I apologise for it. I think, in hindsight, it was the wrong thing to do. I apologise to everybody who’s been badly affected by it. I just want to make absolutely clear that there’s no place in this Government for anybody who is predatory or who abuses their position of power.
Q: Did you once joke ‘both Pincher by name, Pincher by nature’?
Prime Minister: Well, what I can tell you is that if I look at the background of this, and why I regret it so much, is that about three years ago, there was a complaint made against Chris Pincher in the Foreign Office. The complaint was cleared up, he apologised, it was raised with me. Already I was briefed on what had happened. And, you know, if I had my time again I would think back on it and recognise that he wasn’t going to learn anything and he wasn’t going to change and I regret that.
Q: Prime Minister, this is about truth, isn’t it? It’s about whether people can believe what you say. And we now know that those who speak for you over the last few days have said things that turned out to be untrue. Did you lie to them?
Prime Minister: No, and let me explain what happened. So this is the… we’re talking about a series of events, or a series of appointments over several years. So Chris Pincher came into government a deputy chief whip before I became Prime Minister, he was moved to the Foreign Office. He then went on to be a minister for housing. And we then moved him back to be deputy chief whip. As I say, about two and a half years ago I got this complaint. It was something that was only raised with me very cursorily. But I wish that we had – I, in particular – had acted on it, and that he had not continued in government, because he then went on, I’m afraid, to behave – as far as we can see, according to the allegations that we have – very, very badly and I’m sorry for those who’ve been badly affected by it.
Q: I’m conscious that our time is limited. Let’s look at what your spokespeople have said. On Friday your official spokesman said you were not aware of specific allegations. Bluntly, that wasn’t true, was it?
Prime Minister: Well, what is certainly… let me tell you what is true. I was aware back in 2019, I was made aware of a specific allegation against Chris Pincher that was resolved…
Q: Your spokesman on Friday said you were not aware of a specific allegation. On Sunday, a Cabinet minister sent out to interview: ‘I’ve been informed this morning, he’ – you – ‘didn’t know about a specific allegation’. But you did, you’re saying that now. Yesterday, another minister, he’d been given a categoric assurance you weren’t aware of a specific allegation. Day after day after day, people speaking on your behalf were talking rubbish.
Prime Minister: Well, I don’t… I wasn’t… I was, I’m afraid, focusing on other things at the time. But what I’m telling you now is my recollection of events. And my recollection is that there was one complaint that was raised with me specifically. There was others, there was other rumour and innuendo, but there was one particular thing that was raised, and that was…
Q: Which you’d forgotten about.
Prime Minister: It was a long time ago and it was only raised orally with me. But that, Chris, is no excuse. And I should have acted on it and I should have made sure that we drew the proper conclusion. And when I look back on it, yeah, I wish… What I wanted was to give Chris Pincher, if not the benefit of the doubt, then the ability to prove that he could do better. And I’m afraid that he couldn’t. And I feel very, very bitterly disappointed and also sorry for the mistake I made.
Q: What about you doing better, Prime Minister? Lord MacDonald saying today, you keep changing your story, you’re not telling the truth. That was a statement of fact from him, wasn’t it?
Prime Minister: Well, I think he’s referring to the statements that have come out over the last few days. I’ve given you what happened. I’m telling you my account of it. I think that when I look back at it, I wish that I’d thought about the briefing that I had in 2019, about the complaint that was made when he was at the Foreign Office. And even though it was brief, I should have thought, well, you know, maybe he shouldn’t be staying on at the Foreign Office, maybe he shouldn’t be moving on to housing. But at the time the issue was resolved. And so it seemed to me that that was reasonable grounds for him to continue in post. But in retrospect, that was the wrong decision, and I deeply regret it.
Q: What do you say to the person listening to our conversation tonight? Who simply says: ‘Look, I can’t trust the Prime Minister any more. He’s just not telling the truth.’
Prime Minister: Well, I’m giving you the absolute truth as far as I can remember about what happened.
Q: Can people trust you?
Prime Minister: Of course they can. I’m telling you exactly what happened. And I’m coming out to explain it. Because I’m fed up with people, if I may say so, Chris, saying things on my behalf or trying to say… things about what I knew or didn’t know. I’m trying to explain to you exactly what happened, as I remember it. And what happened was that we had a guy that had been the subject of a complaint. The complaint was resolved… He apologised. But it didn’t come… anywhere near the threshold of criminality. There was no question of breach of the Ministerial Code. And so, yeah, the decision was back then – and this was actually something that was resolved within the Foreign Office, I wasn’t asked to take a decision about this – he, they, decided that he could stay on in that job. And he then moved on to do another job in housing. Now, in retrospect, yeah, I should have thought when they brought to me the story about the complaint that had been raised, perhaps I should have said: ‘No, this simply isn’t good enough. He’s got to go right now.’ And that would have meant he would never have committed the alleged offences that he has last week. So yeah, I bitterly regret the decision that was taken to… I took, as it were, not to intervene, but it was not presented to me as a decision but merely as a point of information.
Q: Thank you, Prime Minister.
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