Blitz Bureau
LONDON: The BBC has cancelled an interview with Boris Johnson after presenter Laura Kuenssberg accidentally sent the former prime minister her briefing notes. The presenter of the BBC’s flagship Sunday political interview show said she sent Johnson the notes “in a message meant for my team”.
Kuenssberg, who was the BBC’s political editor between 2015 and 2022, said it was “embarrassing and disappointing”, adding the error meant it was “not right for the interview to go ahead”.
Johnson, who was prime minister from 2019 to 2022, has an upcoming memoir, Unleashed, that will be published next week. Kuenssberg previously investigated his government in Panorama – Partygate: Inside the Storm, and looked back at the recent Conservative years in a three-part BBC Two series, Laura Kuenssberg: ‘State of Chaos’.
A BBC spokesperson was reported as saying the inadvertent move made the interview “untenable” and that both the BBC and Johnson’s team had agreed to cancel the interview. The interview was due to be broadcast on October 3 evening. A spokesperson for Johnson declined to comment.
