Boris Johnson Launches General Election Campaign In Half-Empty Hangar

Boris Johnson has launched his election campaign in a cavernous half-empty hangar in Birmingham.

While images on TV showed the prime minister in front of a crowd of supporters, Trump-style, in reality he only filled around a third of the NEC’s Hall 6 with around 500 handpicked members.

The crowd included several cabinet ministers, who were forced to trek to the soulless conference centre all the way from London for a 30-minute stump speech by Johnson.

And unlike Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson and Nigel Farage at their campaign launches, he didn’t even take any questions.

To make matters worse, the carefully planned timing went haywire amid lengthy Virgin Train delays.

It meant senior ministers including Andrea Leadsom, Theresa Villiers and Esther McVey were stuck in Birmingham International station for 40 minutes with a Subway full of journalists and a waiting room the only refuge.

Below, images of four corners of the NEC’s Hall 6