BBC tells Johnson he ‘can’t appear on Marr if he won’t do Neil’

The BBC has reportedly told the Prime Minister he will not be allowed to go on Sunday's Andrew Marr Show unless he agrees to face Andrew Neil too.

Boris Johnson is said to be reluctant to be interviewed by Mr Neil after his questioning of Jeremy Corbyn over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

Mr Johnson offered to appear on Mr Marr's programme, but the broadcaster turned him down because he would not submit himself to examination by Mr Neil, The Daily Telegraph reported.

LBC radio's Nick Ferrari asked Mr Johnson on Friday if he would be interviewed by Mr Neil, but the PM dodged the question.

Mr Johnson replied: "What people really want to hear is, what are we doing to take the UK forward?"

In Mr Corbyn's interview with Mr Neil, the Labour leader refused four times to apologise for his handling of anti-Semitism allegations.

The issue then dominated the news cycle the next day.

A BBC source told The Daily Telegraph: "He won't be doing Marr until we have confirmed and announced a date for the Neil interview."

"We can't take a Sunday morning programme which is already balanced in its own right as being in mitigation against not doing Neil. Andrew Neil is our priority," another source at the broadcaster said.