Guido presents the highlights from Boris’s interview this morning with LBC’s Nick Ferrari:

On the ongoing Cummings melodrama:

“I don’t wish to comment any of the sayings of any of my former advisers, who are now many…just in the last year, I think we’ve had about 220 people arrive in Number 10 – I don’t know how many have left, quite a few – and I’m sure they’ve all got something interesting to say. But I have no intention of commenting on it…”

On police pay:

“No one would want to pay our fantastic police more than I would. We’re just going through a tough time financially for the government and I think most people do understand that.”

On Cressida Dick’s job performance:

“I think that she’s a formidable police officer … [it’s] a matter for the Mayor of London and the Home Secretary.”

On Sadiq Khan:

“This is not the occasion for me to give the Mayor of London one of my ritual kickings…since you invite me to do so, I think there is more that could be done to fight knife crime on the streets of London, and I would urge the Mayor to do it, I hope. The issue for me, is it’s about taking responsibility…”

On the pandemic:

“We’ve seen some encouraging recent data, there’s no question about that. But it is far, far too early to draw any general conclusions…the most important thing is for people to recognise that the current situation still calls for a lot of caution.”

Boris also acknowledged his phrase “the ketchup of catch-up” was not one of his better ones…