Boris Johnson’s choice to chicken out of facing the public won’t save him come election day

Nurturing a 10-point lead in the polls, it is perhaps not so surprising that the prime minister is doing all he can to evade media scrutiny.

It is very much the stance he has taken since he launched his Conservative leadership campaign in the summer. One head-to-head debate with Jeremy Corbyn, one interview on the Today programme and a few snatched conversations with Laura Kuenssberg on the campaign trail seem to be the extent to which he is prepared to expose himself to danger. Maybe it was not so strange that the prime minister recruited someone who used to follow him around dressed up as a chicken for the Daily Mirror as a press officer​.

Politically, it may be a wise tactic. For party leaders in the lead, and prime ministers especially, the risks are all to the downside. Channel 4’s Climate Debate is the latest invitation the prime minister has declined. Not so long ago Channel 4’s head of news, Dorothy Byrne, called Boris Johnson a “liar”. Right or wrong about that, she thereby gifted him the perfect alibi for a refusal to attend (it was also used by No 10 to duck out of the Channel 4 prime ministerial debate that never was). The example of Prince Andrew’s ill-fated encounter with Emily Maitlis, albeit radically different, might well also have reminded Mr Johnson’s media minders about the dangers of putting on a poor show, and letting the side down.

Still, Mr Johnson is developing something of a reputation as a chicken, if not a thoroughly chlorinated one. It is true that he was under no special obligation to go face to face with a wide range of opponents. Yet Mr Corbyn, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson and Green Party co-leader Sian Berry felt they had nothing to fear from facing the future of the planet. Mr Johnson finds himself in unwelcome company with Nigel Farage, who also found better things to do with his Thursday evening.

More grievous, by far, is Mr Johnson’s now well-advertised reluctance to discuss matters of state with Andrew Neil. Although Mr Johnson was shy about taking on Mr Neil long before the latter made such short work of Mr Corbyn, the precedent was an unhelpful one. It may be that Mr Johnson will eventually feel obliged to face Mr Neil, but at as late a moment as possible, the better to diminish any damage to the Tory campaign.

Sadly, journalists do not hold the power of subpoena over politicians. Would that they did. Traditional “long-form” interviews of cross-party debates with other senior figures have also been absent. The chancellor of the exchequer, for example, is not often seen out and about, and ran away from his own shadow, so to speak, John McDonnell.

Sajid Javid is an intelligent grown-up who should be able to handle himself on economic policy – but he has nowhere near as much self-assurance as Mr McDonnell. Rishi Sunak, chief secretary to the Treasury, and Labour spokespeople Rebecca-Long Bailey and Angela Rayner are some of the few rising media stars of 2019. Contrariwise, Diane Abbott has been seldom glimpsed in recent weeks, and the permanent absence of Jacob Rees-Mogg is well noted. Michael Gove turns up whether we like it or not, with some rather lazy, evasive lines of argument and patronising quips about Stormzy.

Probably not through choice, only Sir Ed Davey has had more than a walk-on part in the Liberal Democrats’ campaign (a party, by the way, no longer known as “Jo Swinson’s Liberal Democrats”. Because the way things are going, they may not be hers for much longer).

Mr Farage is, if anything, rather quiet by his usual high-profile standards. It might be nice to see more of Priti Patel, the home secretary, someone who is lumbered with a perma-smirk and cannot even send a tweet without someone calling for her resignation. Where is Emily Thornberry? Sir Keir Starmer? Didn’t he used to have something to do with Brexit?

There is an informal, but long-standing tradition, that during a general election, a strong leader running for such an important position should agree to undergo an hour or so of close questioning. Even those premiers most averse to the media, such as Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, submitted themselves to the unpleasant ordeal. They wanted to show they could do it, and do it well, and, on the whole, they could. They seem to have possessed rather more self-confidence, grip on policy, and sense of public duty than Mr Johnson does. That, too, is another unsurprising aspect to this game of chicken.