BBC shelves Boris Johnson interview after email blunder
An electronic file that Boris Johnson should not have seen ended up with him. It was sent by journalist Laura Kuenssberg, who was preparing for an interview with the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This mistake led the BBC to cancel the interview scheduled for Thursday evening.
3 October 2024 12:49
The interview with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which was supposed to air on Thursday evening, was to cover, among other things, his book Unleashed. It will hit the shelves in British bookstores on October 10th.
However, the on-air conversation between Johnson and the interviewer, Laura Kuenssberg, will not occur. The journalist confessed that there was an "embarrassing and disappointing" mishap.
No Boris Johnson interview on BBC due to a mistake
The journalist sent the politician her notes. They recorded her preparations for the meeting and included questions she intended to ask the former Prime Minister.
Kuenssberg reported the mistake on social media. "While prepping to interview Boris Johnson tomorrow, by mistake, I sent our briefing notes to him in a message meant for my team," Laura Kuenssberg wrote on platform X.
The host of the station's flagship morning news program added that, in such a situation, the interview could not proceed. "It’s very frustrating, and there’s no point pretending it’s anything other than embarrassing and disappointing, as there are plenty of important questions to be asked. But red faces aside, honesty is the best policy. See you on Sunday," Kuenssberg wrote.
A BBC spokesperson confirmed that this minor incident makes the interview "untenable." He also explained that the station and Boris Johnson's team agreed to cancel it.
The interview was intended to promote the former Prime Minister's new book. "Unleashed," although it will only appear in bookstores in less than a week, is already a topic of speculation. The media quotes parts of the book where the politician writes about the illness of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away in 2022. They also comment that Johnson was expected to talk about his government's handling of the COVID pandemic and the parties on Downing Street during that time.
