Boris Johnson has told a UK radio station his favourite pastime is making buses out of old wooden crates.
In an interview with TalkRadio on Tuesday, 25 June, Mr Johnson was asked what he does for pleasure.
He said he liked to make model buses.
In his usual stuttering style Mr Johnson said: “I don’t mean models of buses. What I make is, I get old wooden crates right, and then I paint them and, suppose it’s a box that has been used to contain two wine bottles and it will have a dividing thing, I turn it into a bus.”
Mr Johnson said: “I paint the passengers enjoying themselves on the wonderful bus, low-carbon of the kind that we brought to the streets of London, reducing CO2, reducing nitrous oxide, reducing pollution.”
Mr Johnson's revelation - which came only days after he was thrown into the spotlight after a domestic altercation with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds at her flat in south London - was met with shock and bemusement on social media.
— Otto English (@Otto_English) 25 June 2019
When he was elected as Mayor of London in 2010 he ditched the unpopular “bendy buses” which had been introduced by his successor, Ken Livingstone, and brought in a new fleet of buses which harked back to the famous Routemaster buses, with their rear staircase.
But critics said the new Routemasters have been poor performing and do not help air quality.
In the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum, Mr Johnson travelled on a campaign bus which carried a claim that Britain sent £350 million to the European Union every week and said this money would be given instead to the NHS.
— Cllr Kate Chinn (@Epsom_Chinn) 25 June 2019
Last month Mr Johnson faced a private prosecution over these allegedly false claims but the High Court threw it out.
Mr Johnson, 55, also said he admired the Greek statesman Pericles, who coined the phrase that “politics is about the many, not the few”, echoing the slogan of the opposition Labour Party.
— David Wolfson (@DXWQC) 25 June 2019
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) 25 June 2019
— Chairman Moët (@ChairmanMoet) 25 June 2019
— Neal Stewart (@nealrstewart) 25 June 2019
