‘Please leave my town’, voter politely asks Boris Johnson during PM’s Yorkshire visit
‘You should be in Brussels negotiating, you are playing games,’ another member of the public says
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson received a frosty reception from one man during his visit to Yorkshire as he was asked to “please leave my town”.
The prime minister’s day got off to a bad start on Thursday after his brother Jo Johnson resigned from the Conservative party.
But things went from bad to worse as he was heckled in the street in front of TV cameras by one man in Morley, and politely asked to leave by another.
In a clip broadcast by the BBC, a man can be seen coming up to Mr Johnson and shaking his hand, before asking him to “please leave my town” and slapping him on the back.
The prime minister, who appears to have been caught by surprise, agrees and simply replies: “I will, very soon.”
The exchange led to the #PleaseLeaveMyTown hashtag trending on Twitter on Thursday evening.
In another clip, a man shouts “you should be in Brussels negotiating”, to which Mr Johnson replies: “We are negotiating.”
However the member of the public insists: “You are not. You are in Morley, in Leeds. You are playing games.”
Mr Johnson also faced criticism over his “inappropriate” use of student police officers as a backdrop to a “political stunt” as he gave a speech in Wakefield.
About 35 officers were left standing behind his lectern at West Yorkshire Police’s operations and training complex for at least 20 minutes before the speech began.
The prime minister had finished his speech and was answering a number of questions from journalists when it became clear a policewoman standing behind his right shoulder was not feeling well.
He turned to ask the officer if she was OK and she sat down behind him.
Despite saying: “I’m so sorry, OK that is a signal for me actively to wind up”, he continued to criticise the Labour leader for not backing his plans for a snap general election.
The West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson called for Mr Johnson to apologise.
He said: “To use police officers as the backdrop to what became a political speech was inappropriate and they shouldn’t have been put in that position.”
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