Andrew Neil returns to TV with new Channel 4 show asking if Boris Johnson is finished
Andrew Neil returns to TV! Veteran broadcaster will front new Channel 4 documentary asking whether Boris Johnson ‘has run out of road’ as PM
Andrew Neil is making return to TV by fronting a documentary on Boris Johnson Veteran broadcaster is fronting C4 documentary on PM’s crisis of authorityHe will provide ‘inside track’ by interviewing Conservative MPs amid ‘Partygate’ Mr Johnson refused to commit to an interview with Mr Neil during 2019 election
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Andrew Neil is making a return to TV by fronting a documentary asking whether Boris Johnson has ‘run out of road’ as prime minister.
The veteran broadcaster, 72, dramatically quit GB News last year over the new channel’s ‘anti-woke’ direction of travel.
He will now provide the ‘inside track’ on the crisis of authority which has gripped Downing Street and much of Westminster in a new Channel 4 documentary, due to air on Sunday night.
The special programme, titled Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road?, will examine the Prime Minister’s ‘political fight’ through Mr Neil’s ‘unique access to Conservative MPs’.
It will feature interviews with former Cabinet minister Lord Frost, who resigned in December over Covid curbs and tax rises, and former Brexit secretary David Davis, who told Mr Johnson to quit last week.
Mr Neil called the ‘Partygate’ drama the ‘biggest leadership in crisis in three decades and we have a ringside seat’.
Andrew Neil subjected Boris Johnson to a withdering monologue in the run-up to the last General Election (above)
He ’empty-chaired’ the prospective Prime Minister and blasted him for failing to subject himself to a grilling
The PM has faced calls to resign over allegations of lockdown-busting gatherings in Downing Street, the latest being reports that No10 staff celebrated his birthday in the Cabinet Room at the height of the first Covid shutdown.
Critics who have accused Mr Johnson of misleading Parliament over the scandal are waiting for the publication of a report into the allegations by Whitehall ethics tsar Sue Gray within days.
Louisa Compton, Channel 4’s head of news, said: ‘With Boris Johnson’s future as UK Prime Minister seemingly hanging on a knife edge, who better to examine how we got here and what could happen next than Britain’s leading political journalist, Andrew Neil?
‘This timely film underlies the channel’s commitment to producing distinctive, thought-provoking and outstanding journalism.’
Mr Gilchrist said it had been a ‘tremendous privilege’ to follow Mr Neil ‘as he covers the most extraordinary and dynamic political story of our times’.
He added: ‘It’s not often one gets access to the key players within a political party as it tries to decide whether or not to depose the Prime Minister.’
Mr Neil had worked with Mr Johnson on The Spectator magazine when he was appointed chairman in 2004 while Mr Johnson was the editor.
During the 2019 general election campaign, the Tory leader repeatedly refused to commit to an interview with Mr Neil, despite other party leaders agreeing to be quizzed.
Other films made by Rogan Productions, which is making the C4 documentary, include Black Power: A British Story Of Resistance, Putin: A Russian Spy Story and Freddie Mercury: The Final Act for BBC Two.
Appearing on the BBC’s Question Time in September, Mr Neil said ‘more and more differences’ had emerged between him and station bosses at GB News and he felt he was in a ‘minority of one’ about its future.
He also added that the launch of GB News could not be described as a ‘startling success’.
‘More and more differences emerged between myself and the other senior managers and the board of GB News,’ the broadcaster said.
‘Rather than these differences narrowing, they got wider and wider and I felt it was best that if that’s the route they wanted to take then that’s up to them, it’s their money.
‘The route is what I think you can see on GB News at the moment, people should make up their own minds what they want to watch.’
Boris Johnson at Bovingdon Primary School in Bovingdon, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire on July 19, 2020, the day he enjoyed a 56th birthday party at Downing Street
GB News launched in June, with Mr Neil saying it would not ‘slavishly follow the existing news agenda’.
In an opening monologue, Mr Neil said his show would cover ‘the stories that matter to you and those that have been neglected’ and deliver ‘a huge range of voices that reflect the views and values of our United Kingdom’.
A number of big names joined the channel for its launch including ITV News journalist Alastair Stewart, BBC journalist Simon McCoy and former Labour MP Gloria De Piero.
It comes as Mr Johnson is facing a crisis of leadership as he fights allegations of multiple breaches of lockdown rules throughout the pandemic.
Last night, No10 admitted that Mr Johnson attended an event with 30 guests in the Cabinet Room on June 19, 2020, where participants enjoyed a Union Jack birthday cake and Marks and Spencer picnic food.
Just months earlier, Mr Johnson had praised Josephine, who had cancelled a birthday party just days before the first national shutdown. On Twitter, the PM said that the child had ‘set a great example to us all by postponing her birthday party until we have sent coronavirus packing’.
