Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Politics
Tom Peck

Boris Johnson ambushed with '£350m-for-NHS' cheque

Boris Johnson was ambushed by Sky News reporter Darren McCaffrey at Conservative Party conference, and asked to sign a giant cheque for £350m, made out to the NHS.

This, you may recall, is the amount Vote Leave promised would be free to send to the NHS when the UK exited the EU.

The Foreign Secretary, unsurprisingly, refused to sign the cheque, and when asked why, he said: "Because you’re doing a pointless stunt, that’s why."

If such £350m-cheque based stunts are so pointless, we do have to wonder why, on the campaign trail in mid-May, Mr Johnson donned hi-viz in order to smelt a large metal cheque of the same amount.

And also why, a week earlier, he had taken an angle grinder to seventeen sheets of rolled steel, spelling out “£350,000,000 per week.”

Mr Johnson was not the only reluctant cheque signer. McCaffrey also presented the cheque to Andrea Leadsom, Iain Duncan Smith, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel. It remains unsigned.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.