Boris Johnson squirmed today as he was confronted on live TV with his own vile comments about single mums.
The Tory leader was ambushed with his own words as he went on ITV's This Morning in a bid to talk about his first 100 days in government if he wins the election.
Instead host Holly Willoughby wanted to talk about a column he wrote in 1995 - which he
She told him: "This will get dragged up because you are the Prime Minister... you branded single mothers irresponsible."
She also raised a 1995 column in which he - with the TV feed cutting away to a Mirror front page on the vile remarks.
The daytime TV host told him: "That's going to hurt feelings.
"This is alienating our viewers watching here today, this is alienating many people."
As the Prime Minister blustered and protested she said: "It is! You must be able to understand how hurtful that is to someone's feelings!"
The Tory leader spluttered: "Of course, of course, if, if, if, if stuff is [inaudible].
"But I don't think this is the time to talk about articles that were written a very long time ago."
He added: "Look at what we are doing. You mentioned mothers.
"What we're doing as a One Nation Conservative government is we're investing massively in childcare.
"In the manifesto, fantastic plans for wraparound childcare in the morning, in the evening. And look at what we're doing on safety. Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party would abolish Ofsted which keeps kids safe."
Labour would abolish Ofsted but would replace the regulator with a new inspections regime, not have no inspections at all.
The Tory leader was also challenged by This Morning host Phillip Schofield over a column he wrote last year, comparing Muslim women who wear a veil to letterboxes and bank robbers.
Despite boasting the Tories have a "zero-tolerance" approach to Islamophobia, Mr Johnson was cleared of wrongdoing by an investigation and allowed to stay in the Conservative Party.
ITV host Phillip told him: "Does it help that a Prime Minister of this great nation would use the terms bank robber and letterbox to describe Muslim women who wear a burqa?"
Mr Johnson said: "People dig out all sorts of articles I've..."
Phillip said: "You said it!"
As the Tory leader spluttered, ITV's host asked him if he would like to apologise - the same question he put to Jeremy Corbyn over anti-Semitism earlier this week.
Mr Johnson replied: "I’ve already said sorry for any offence I’ve caused and I say it again.
"But let me be very clear, that I don't set out to cause offence in what I've written. I think what people want to know is, 'what are we going to do now?'"
But Phillip Schofield asked, aghast: "What people want to know is if you’re going to be Prime Minister, why would you say something like that?"
Mr Johnson said: "It's always worth looking at what the whole article said and what I'm intending to say because it's quite the opposite.
"I'm quite proud of my record on combating extremism and indeed of my Muslim ancestry."
