Boris Johnson’s sister, Rachel Johnson, interviewed their father Stanley Johnson about the current government live on air over the weekend, in a segment so bizarre a Tory MP called it out.
On Sunday, she invited Stanley Johnson – a former Conservative member of the European parliament and keen environmentalist – on her regular LBC talk show to talk about the high levels of sewage currently being pumped into UK waters.
She asked him if it was the water companies who were responsible, or the “Tory government who haven’t made enough of this illegal?”
Most Tory MPs caused an outcry last year when they voted down an amendment from the House of Lords which would have stopped water companies pumping raw waste into UK waters.
Her father replied: “We have to blame the government for not pressing this matter as hard as he should have done.
“In the absence of the EU push as well, you can understand how the government has felt able to not push things as it should have pushed.”
He then called for the UK to go back into a regulatory agency close to the bloc which could push for higher water standards.
Although Johnson did not directly name his son, Tory MP Huw Merriman was not happy with the interview, despite agreeing with the former MEP and voting in favour of stopping the raw sewage being sent into rivers last year.
He tweeted: “I agree and voted on the sewage point but, when I was a baby, Johnson and Johnson used to powder backsides rather than be paid to talk out of them.
“There is too much nepotism in politics.
“It must stop. People must believe they can succeed by merit and hard work.”
Merriman was not alone in calling out the bizarre nature of the segment either.
Johnson has also used her LBC slot to ask culture secretary Nadine Dorries if she fancies the outgoing prime minister, to defend her brother over partygate and to campaign in favour of her other brother, Jo Johnson, to get a peerage.
However, she was previously the European Elections candidate for the pro-Remain party, Change UK, back in 2019, and has accused the prime minister of using the Commons as a “bully pulpit”.