The BBC has cancelled a prime-time interview with Boris Johnson after the presenter Laura Kuenssberg accidentally sent the former prime minister her briefing notes. Kuenssberg said she sent Johnson the notes “in a message meant for my team”. The former BBC political editor said it was “embarrassing and disappointing”, adding the error meant it was “not right for the interview to go ahead”. Due to be broadcast at 7.30pm on Thursday on BBC One, it was being billed as Johnson’s first major interview since leaving office. He was expected to discuss Brexit, his government’s handling of the Covid pandemic and the Partygate scandal. Other broadcasters and podcasters have offered to do the interview in Kuenssberg’s place amid calls for the BBC to use another journalist. Those volunteering on X to conduct the interview included Sky’s former political editor Adam Boulton, Tony Blair’s former director of communications Alastair Campbell, and the Channel 4 News presenters Cathy Newman and Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Sunder Katwala, the director of the thinktank British Future, also urged the BBC to find a replacement to conduct the interview. “Shouldn’t the BBC just get somebody else to do the interview on Friday or next week?” he said on X.
Johnson, who was prime minister from 2019 to 2022, has a memoir, Unleashed, being published next week. Kuenssberg previously investigated his government in Panorama episode Partygate: Inside the Storm, and looked back at the recent Conservative years in a three-part BBC Two series called Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos. In a post on X on Wednesday evening, Kuenssberg wrote: “While prepping to interview Boris Johnson tomorrow, by mistake I sent our briefing notes to him in a message meant for my team. That obviously means it’s not right for the interview to go ahead. “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.” 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 it. A spokesperson for Johnson declined to comment.