ITV’s Tom Bradby has swooped in to grab an exclusive interview with Boris Johnson after Laura Kuenssberg was forced to cancel on the former prime minister.
The BBC presenter posted a tweet late on Wednesday evening to say that while prepping for the interview – originally set to air on Thursday night – she sent the former prime minister briefing notes “by mistake” in a message “meant for my team”.
She claimed this led to a “frustrating” decision to call off the interview as it was “not right” for it to go ahead.
ITV has now confirmed it will broadcast an interview with the former Tory leader on Friday.
It is scheduled to air at 7pm on ITV1 and will be conducted by News at Ten anchor, Tom Bradby.
The interview comes ahead of the release of Johnson’s forthcoming political memoir, Unleashed, which is set to be released against a backdrop of widespread criticism.
Sharing the news from ITV, journalist Kevin Schofield tweeted: “ITV gleefully fill the vacuum caused by the BBC cancelling their big Boris Johnson interview …”
Meanwhile, Peter Stefanovic posted: “Why are UK news shows clamouring to help the worst prime minister of recent times publicize his book?”
Plenty of broadcasters such as Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News and James O’Brien of LBC offered their services – somewhat sarcastically – after Kuenssberg’s apparent error, but it’s ITV which has secured the scoop.
The interview with Kuenssberg was set to be Johnson’s first serious grilling about his time in Downing Street since his departure.
As an experienced journalist, some have questioned why she couldn’t have come up with another set of questions Johnson had not seen, while others could not understand why another leading interviewer, such as Victoria Derbyshire, could not have talked to him in her place.
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