An exclusive poll run by The London Economic has revealed almost three in five people believe it is not right to refer to the prime minister simply as ‘Boris’.
Debate over the correct moniker for the PM was reignited earlier this week after John Bercow lashed out at Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid for calling the prime minister ‘Boris’, bizarrely suggesting that “Boris was her favourite puppy dog”.
Alastair Campbell, standing in as Reid’s co-host, piled in with his view that ‘Boris’ should be referred to as Mr Johnson – in all corners of the media.
Reid, clearly annoyed by the argument, brought it up again on Wednesday morning – asking Campbell whether she was allowed to call his former boss Tony Blair, set to appear on the show later, by his first name.
“Am I allowed to call Tony Blair ‘Tony’,” she asked, “or will I be accused of treating him like my favourite puppy dog?”
After Campbell suggested the situation was different, because Blair is no longer prime minister, Reid continued: “Right, so when I call Boris Johnson ‘Boris’ I get flack for it, so is it okay if it is somebody from Labour? Am I okay to call them by their first name?”
A TLE Twitter poll has revealed that most people (58 per cent) err on the side of not calling Boris Johnson simply ‘Boris’, and stirred some interesting reaction.
We’ve rounded up the best of the reaction below:
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