Boris Johnson’s choice to chicken out of facing the public won’t save him come election day

Even premiers most averse to the media have undergone the unpleasant ordeal of an hour or so of close questioning. That the Tory leader won’t reveals more than he realises

Nurturing a 10-point lead in the polls, it is perhaps not so surprising that the prime minister is doing all he can to evade media scrutiny.

It is very much the stance he has taken since he launched his Conservative leadership campaign in the summer. One head-to-head debate with Jeremy Corbyn, one interview on the Today programme and a few snatched conversations with Laura Kuenssberg on the campaign trail seem to be the extent to which he is prepared to expose himself to danger. Maybe it was not so strange that the prime minister recruited someone who used to follow him around dressed up as a chicken for the Daily Mirror as a press officer​.

Politically, it may be a wise tactic. For party leaders in the lead, and prime ministers especially, the risks are all to the downside. Channel 4’s Climate Debate is the latest invitation the prime minister has declined. Not so long ago Channel 4’s head of news, Dorothy Byrne, called Boris Johnson a “liar”. Right or wrong about that, she thereby gifted him the perfect alibi for a refusal to attend (it was also used by No 10 to duck out of the Channel 4 prime ministerial debate that never was). The example of Prince Andrew’s ill-fated encounter with Emily Maitlis, albeit radically different, might well also have reminded Mr Johnson’s media minders about the dangers of putting on a poor show, and letting the side down.