Frontrunner to be PM refuses to comment on picture that emerged in wake of row

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Boris Johnson has repeatedly refused to say whether his campaign team passed a photograph of him and his partner to newspapers as a PR strategy during a radio interview which saw the Tory leadership frontrunner quizzed again about his personal life.

Speaking to LBC, Johnson refused at least half a dozen times to comment on the photo of himself and Carrie Symonds seemingly sitting in the garden of a pub. He would not answer when the host, Nick Ferrari, pressed: “This is quite an old picture isn’t it?”

Advisers worked to keep him on message all week, but Friday night underlined why he remains a ‘grade one liability’

It was the moment the “Back Boris” team had dreaded but half-expected – when months of careful campaign planning were thrown off course by revelations about their man’s private life. As votes were being counted on Thursday afternoon in the final ballot of MPs for the Tory party leadership, a member of Johnson’s inner circle was upbeat but still on edge. As he paced the Commons corridors he knew Johnson would come top by a mile and reach the final two candidates – but there was no way he would lower his guard.

Asked how it was all going, he replied: “Yes, well, thanks. But you never know what can happen next, do you?”