Boris Johnson’s Unconvincing Explanation For Dropping A Reference To Masturbation From His Speech

Boris Johnson removed a curious reference to masturbation from his first major speech of the general election campaign – and prompted journalists to raise their eyebrows when the prime minister claimed he did not know how the lewd language entered the public domain.

On Tuesday night, journalists were told the PM would claim a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour government will “ruin” 2020 with two referendums on EU membership and Scottish independence, and said this was “an expense of spirit and a waste of shame, more political self-obsession and onanism”.

In extracts of the speech briefed by Conservative Party headquarters, Johnson was expected to say:

“We can honour the wishes of the people, or else we can waste more time, at the cost of a billion pounds per month, and have two more referendums, one on Scotland and one on the EU – an expense of spirit and a waste of shame, more political self-obsession and onanism.”

But when questioned at the speech on Wednesday by The Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn on why the line had been omitted, the PM said: “All I can say is that a stray early draft seems to have somehow found its way into your otherwise peerless copy by a process I do not pretend to understand. But I will make enquiries.”

The idea a former national newspaper journalist does not “understand” how briefing a speech works seems about is plausible as the leader of political party not knowing which extracts his media handlers are revealing. At least, this appeared to be the collective response of UK political journalists.