- Andrew Gwynne tussled with Boris Johnson on air in a bizarre election spat
- He claims Mr Johnson hates body contact so he wound him up by touching him
- The pair almost toppled over in front of the cameras during the interview
Boris Johnson has a phobia of being touched as he ‘hates body contact’ a Labour frontbencher today claimed.
Shadow local government minister Andrew Gwynne wrestled with the Foreign Secretary live on air shortly before the election in now-infamous scenes.
Mr Gwynne branded the Tory a ‘pillock’ after the pair nearly toppled in the bizarre spat in front of the rolling cameras.
Lifting the lid on the clash, he said the Cabinet minister loathes being touched and so he purposely draped his arm over him to wind him up.
Labour’s Andrew Gwynne (pictured today at the Labour Party conference) today claimed, that Boris Johnson hates body contact
Speaking at a fringe meeting at Labour conference in Brighton, Mr Gwynne said he realised the Foreign Secretary hated being touched when they went head to head on Sky after a leaders debate in the run up to the election.
He said: ‘We did this interview and Boris saw read. He was just incandescent.
‘I think it was a class thing – who is this oik who was educated in a comprehensive school to speak up and challenge this Foreign Secretary who was educated at Eton.
‘One thing I noticed was when I put my arm on Boris’s shoulder he totally hated it. He hated body contact. So I remembered that for the second time.’
Mr Gwynne spotted the Foreign Secretary in a green room after the next debate, but said Mr Johnson’s aides insisted the pair could not go head to head on air again.
So once the cameras were rolling he decided to dash over and crash the broadcast interview.
Andrew Gwynne revealed his on air tussle with Boris Johnson happened after he wound him up by draping his arm around him
The pair nearly toppled over in the now infamous on air spat which happened as they were interviewed following a leaders debate before the election
And he revealed he tried to get a rise out of the Cabinet minister by draping his arm around him.
He said: ‘He got really flustered because I put my hand on his shoulder again.
‘He grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and pushed me forward. I very nearly fell backwards.
‘I think at that point he realised “s**t I shouldn’t have done that”.
‘So he held me back and I said “don’t be a pillock”. That went viral and the next was history.’