Boris Johnson was challenged about keeping the Daily Mirror off the Conservative campaign bus by an outraged audience member at the Question Time special.
Mr Johnson was asked during the programme about "avoiding scrutiny" after he refused to take part in a debate on Channel Four.
He was also asked about the decision to prorogue parliament which was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.
"Why should you be Prime Minister you're constantly avoiding scrutiny, you cancelled parliament for five weeks, you ran away from Channel Four debate which would have been on Sunday and you banned the Daily Mirror from the Conservative bus?"
The Conservative Party banned the Daily Mirror from travelling on the party’s battle bus on Wednesday.
Senior Tory aides told the Mirror as early as last week they could have access to the trip - the Tory leader’s first with the bus - but pulled the offer at the last minute.
Our reporter was then blocked from boarding the red, white and blue emblazoned campaign coach when she arrived in Manchester city centre, where it set off just before 8am.
As the bus headed for crucial electoral battlegrounds in the north east with Mr Johnson, our correspondent was forced to wave goodbye.
Responding to a question about scrutiny, Mr Johnson said: "On your point about the reasons for having an election, let's be in no doubt, I didn't want to have an election. No prime minister wants to have an election on December 12. We had to do it because Parliament is blocking Brexit."
The audience erupted into groans when Mr Johnson said: "They were given every opportunity to pass it ... every opportunity to pass and they passed a law to insist that extended beyond October 31."
The Mirror, which reaches almost 500,000 households and more than eleven million people online every day, was the only major national newspaper excluded from the trip.
The Tories had blamed the Mirror’s critical coverage of the Prime Minister in recent weeks.
This has included front page stories on the state of the NHS and criticising the Mr Johnson over his response to flooding in the north of England.
Other stories have shone a light on the dangers of a Brexit deal with Donald Trump opening up the NHS to big pharma, with US firms lining up to cash in.
