Boris Johnson has claimed the naughtiest thing he had ever done that he was “prepared to admit”, was that he had ridden his bicycle on the pavement.
Theresa May replied to the same question with “running through a field of wheat” prompting immediate mockery.
But unlike the famously restrained Mrs May, Mr Johnson has a very different reputation.
Viewers of Sophy Ridge’s interview of the Prime Minister might have expected Mr Johnson, who is known for his colourful love life, has a history of writing controversial columns and was sacked twice for lying, might have coughed to something more shocking.
But the PM did specify that he would only fess up to something that he was “prepared to admit” and that wouldn’t be too politically damaging.
(Image: Getty Images)
Mr Johnson had promised to give his answer to Sophy Ridge in an earlier interview and the presenter seemed disappointed with his lacklustre reply after a number of months had passed since she first asked him.
“I think I may sometimes, how can I put this, I may sometimes when I was riding a bicycle every day – which I used to do – I may sometimes have not always obeyed the law about cycling on the pavement,” said the PM.
“But I want you to know how firmly and strongly I disapprove of people who cycle on the pavement and I think it’s wrong and I feel bad about it but I might sometimes have scooted up onto the pavement rather than dismounting before.”
Asked if that was actually the naughtiest thing he had ever done, he replied: “No, no, it was a very careful rubric. What you said was the naughtiest thing that I was prepared to admit…”
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn was asked a different version of the question by ITV’s Julie Etchingham last week when she quizzed him on what the “most romantic sort of wild and reckless thing you’ve ever done” was.
Mr Corbyn replied: “You can’t ask that question on television!”, before admitting it was “wonderful holidays” with his wife, Laura Alvarez.
