Boris Johnson refuses to commit to changing his baby's nappy
Prime minister expecting child with partner Carrie Symonds in the early summer
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson appeared far from a modern hands-on father as he failed to commit to changing his new baby's nappies during an interview on ITV1's This Morning, hesitating for several seconds before telling hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby: "I expect so."
The prime minister - who has at least five children by previous partners - initially seemed about to say that he would not get involved in cleaning up after the baby.
But after being urged by Willoughby to “give it a go”, he eventually said: “I expect so.”
At the end of a 15-minute interview on the famous This Morning sofa, largely taken up by the coronavirus crisis, Holly said they could not let the PM go without congratulating him on the impending birth.
Carrie, 31, announced on Instagram last weekend that she and the 55-year-old PM were engaged to be married and that she was “hatching” their first child, which was due in the early summer.
“Are you excited about becoming a father again?” asked Willoughby.
Mr Johnson’s slightly begrudging reply “Very excited. Very excited” prompted an incredulous Schofield to ask: “Is that it? How good are you changing nappies?”
An apparently embarrassed PM spluttered awkwardly: “I’m not going to, I, I, well, I’m not going to, I’m not going to, well obviously.”
And Schofield pressed home the question: “Will you change nappies?”
Willoughby added encouragingly: “Give it a go, give it a go. It’s part of the whole experience” and Johnson finally replied: “Oh, I expect so.”
He later tried to suggest that he had said he would get involved in the cleaning chores when the baby arrives.
Explaining that he deliberately tried to avoid talking about his family in order to keep them out of the headlines, he acknowledged that this might not stretch as far as refusing to discuss his nappy-changing plans.
“That was a very tricky one,” he said. “That was really coming in on middle stump. There was nowhere to go on that one. If I’d said no…”
When Willoughby retorted “You could have said yes”, the PM seemed surprised, telling her “I did say yes.”
“In a vague sort of way,” replied Schofield.
Mr Johnson has four children by ex-wife Marina Wheeler and another daughter from an extra-marital affair, but is also believed to have fathered another child outside of his marriage. In a radio interview last year he refused to say how many children he has.
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