Politics

Boris Johnson called out for confusing Tyneside with Teeside on election campaign

Boris Johnson called out for confusing Tyneside with Teeside on election campaign
BBC presenter accidentally says Boris Johnson ‘spent his first night in prison’
Indy

Boris Johnson - or more likely a hapless civil servant running his Twitter account - has put his foot in it big time.

While out campaigning ahead of the local elections this Thursday, the prime minister posted a picture of him in Tyneside in Newcastle but said he was having a "fantastic day" in Teeside - which is an entirely different area in Middlesbrough.

Johnson has since deleted the message, posting another tweet which instead says: “It was a fantastic day to be out campaigning in the North East." Great idea, play it vague and play it safe...

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But the slip didn't go unnoticed by savvy social media users and opposition MPs:

His mistake comes as the Tories are predicted to have the worst local election outcome since the 1990s. Labour is set to gain more than 800 seats while the Tories are set to lose almost 550 seats, according to a survey carried out by Electoral Calculus and Find Out Now.

Meanwhile, it is not the first time Johnson has grappled with geography. After Cop26 last year, he mistakenly said the historic climate change conference had taken place in Edinburgh, not Glasgow.

And if you thought chancellor Rishi Sunak was any better then think again. While being interviewed by the BBC about levelling up and his budget last year, he got Burnley and Bury mixed up and left people fuming.

Someone give the Tories a map of the UK - fast.

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