Boris Johnson’s upbeat defence of labour shortages

Boris Johnson hadn’t been on the Today programme for two years. His interview this morning was, as so many of his interviews are, a testy affair. Johnson gave typically long answers, much to Nick Robinson’s frustration – at one point, he simply said ‘stop talking, Prime Minister’, a phrase that is bound to cause a row. Johnson at the end asked what the point was of him giving an interview if he couldn’t talk, but those listening will have known what Robinson meant. Johnson’s style is to bulldoze through questions by sheer weight of words.

But that aside, what was most striking about the interview was how upbeat Johnson was about the current situation. He dismissed the idea that there is a crisis, saying we are simply seeing ‘stresses and strains’ in supply chains because the pipes of the global economy are unfreezing after lockdown.