Boris Johnson was “fired” from Channel 4’s overnight US election coverage for twice promoting his memoir Unleashed.
The former prime minister and previous Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip was a guest on America Decides: US Presidential Election when host Krishnan Guru-Murthy rebuked him for plugging his memoir Unleashed.
After the Mr Johnson’s departure, Mr Guru-Murthy said: “Boris Johnson has been fired for banging on about his book too much.”
It is not confirmed if Boris Johnson’s subsequent exit from the show was planned or if he had left early following the disagreement.
Only minutes into the show the former prime minister held his book up to viewers as Mr Guru-Murthy said: “Put it away, stop it, enough.”
The presenter said Boris Johnson’s attempt at promoting his book was “so cheap.”
Mr Johnson said: “There is absolutely nothing you can do to stop me. I’m allowed to plug my book.”
Co-host Emily Maitlis told the former prime minister: “We are not all going to read your book.”
She added: “Just tell us, do you want to have a political comeback? You can’t even answer a single question.”
In response, Mr Johnson said: “Emily, I’ve answered all your questions all night. Currently, I am blissfully engaged promoting my book Unleashed, available in all good book stores.”
He added that Channel 4 was “taking a massively skewed approach to a US election.”
The former prime minister attempted to link many topics in the panel discussion to his political memoir which was published in last month rather than answer them directly.
When asked if he would follow in Trump’s footsteps with a political comeback, Johnson said: “The answer is obviously contained in Unleashed where you’ll find the full discussion of this subject.”
In the past Boris Johnson has maintained and defended his “good relationship” with the President-elect.
Mr Johnson said in last night’s panel discussion: “I had a very very interesting time working with Donald Trump.
“When I look at some of the decisions he took on the foreign policy side, I think they were robust.”
However, he then said: “There are clearly issues that we don’t agree on” adding Trump’s views on reproductive rights are different to his own.
Featured image credit: U.S. Embassy in U.K.
