Boris Johnson's response to story about pensioner who rides buses all day to stay warm is truly awful

Boris Johnson boasted about introducing free bus passes after he was told about a pensioner who rides buses all day to keep energy costs down at home.

In his first Good Morning Britain interview for five years, and after he infamously ran away and hid in a fridge ahead of the 2019 general election, the prime minister spoke to Susanna Reid about a range of issues including the war in Ukraine, Partygate and his record in office.

But it was when Reid touched on the cost of living crisis when Johnson really put his foot in it.

Reid said people had got in touch with the show to explain the impact rising energy prices had had on them and spoke about a 77-year old widow named Elsie who lives in a council house. She said that her energy bills have increased from £17 a month to £85 meaning she will pay £816 more a year and she has resorted to drastic measures to make ends meet.

To cut costs, she has "resorted to eating one meal a day" and is "losing weight". "She goes to the supermarket at the end of the day to buy yellow stickered discounted items, she gets up early in the morning to use her freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid energy at home," Reid said.

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She asked: "What else should Elsie cut back on?"

Johnson's response? "I don't want Elsie to cut back on anything," he said before saying something that left us with our heads in our hands:

"Just to remind you, the 24-hour freedom bus pass was something that I actually introduced."

"Marvellous so Elsie should be grateful to you for her bus pass," Reid quipped back, before Johnson chuntered on about giving more money to councils and tax rebates.

“We are making sure we take the steps now to invest in our energy supply to make sure we have help in the medium and long term," he said.

People thought his bus comment was a tasteless thing to say:

And just to do a bit of fact-checking about the bus passes...

Elsewhere in the interview, Johnson defended the government's widely-criticised visa system for Ukrainian refugees but admitted "perhaps we could have" sped up the process of admitting people fleeing the country.

When asked about Partygate, he once again said he would not comment until the conclusion of the police investigation but said he had not received further fines, and said he would not resign unlike other officials who broke rules including Matt Hancock, because he was "getting on" and had delivered Brexit. That's fine then...

And at the end of the interview when Reid said it was time to end the show to cut to ITV's Lorraine hosted by (of course) Lorraine Kelly, he asked "who's Lorraine", to which Reid replied "a legend".

Perhaps he should have stayed in the fridge...

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

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