This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Boris Johnson was once again accused of dodging scrutiny as the election campaign reached its climax on Wednesday, when his 500-mile dash round Britain to drum up votes was overshadowed by claims he had avoided a TV interview by retreating into a fridge.

With nerves jangling at CCHQ after a closely watched YouGov projection suggested the Conservatives’ lead over Labour had narrowed significantly, Johnson’s team were keen to avoid unscripted moments.

But his press secretary, Rob Oxley, was heard to mutter “for fuck’s sake” live on Good Morning Britain, as he shielded the retreating Johnson from a Good Morning Britain producer, Jonathan Swain, who had come to ambush him.

The encounter happened during a pre-dawn photo call at a dairy delivery business called Modern Milkman, in the Tory-held marginal of Pudsey.

Piers Morgan and Susannah Reid gave a running commentary as the prime minister said, “I’ll be with you in a second,” and walked off, before Morgan exclaimed: “He’s gone into the fridge!” Johnson walked inside a fridge stacked with milk bottles with his aides.

Conservative sources subsequently insisted that Johnson was “categorically not hiding” in the fridge, from which the PM emerged carrying a crate of milk bottles and began to load up a delivery van. Instead, his aides said they were taking a moment to prep him for a separate, pre-agreed interview.

Johnson has repeatedly been accused of avoiding difficult questions during the campaign, most prominently by declining to be interviewed by the BBC’s Andrew Neil.

The fridge incident occurred at the start of a gruelling day for the prime minister, as he travelled by bus and plane, from Yorkshire to Derbyshire, then to Wales and on to Essex, before addressing a rally in east London in the evening.

As on Tuesday, when he drove a bulldozer through a wall of polystyrene bricks painted with the slogan “gridlock”, Johnson took part in a series of carefully arranged photo opportunities.

After loading up the milk van – and dodging GMB – he delivered a crate to a handpicked property in nearby Guiseley, where the householder, Mrs Monaghan, appeared delighted to see him. “It’s so nice to meet you, prime minister: what are you doing up so early?” she asked.

En route to Labour-held Derby North, he managed to stop at the junction 29 roadside cafe on the M1 to polish off a full English breakfast and be snapped for a tweet that said he was, “getting breakfast done!”.

Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) Getting breakfast done! pic.twitter.com/cls4lNZ31Y

Once in Derby, he put on a Get Brexit Done apron, and helped finish off making a pie at a caterers, before declaring it “oven-ready” – the phrase he has repeatedly used to describe his Brexit deal. “How can we express this idea more succinctly or more clearly?” he asked the assembled media.

Later, after a flight to Cardiff, the prime minister toured a factory that makes crackers and wrapping paper, helping staff to pack boxes, and then pulling a cracker arm in arm with workers, several of whom greeted him warmly and asked for selfies.

Johnson then flew back to Southend, Essex, and went to participate in a brief canvassing session in nearby Benfleet, where he planted a “Get Brexit Done” placard in the garden of Tim Goldfinch, who said he and his family would all be voting Conservative.

And the PM ended the day by addressing a crowd of activists in a final eve-of-poll rally at the Copper Box Arena in London’s Olympic Park.

Around 2,000 turned out to hear the prime minister, who said the election represented the most “yawning chasm” between the two major parties in his lifetime. Before Johnson came on stage, the crowd was whipped into a frenzy by Michael Gove, shouting “shame on him” at a mention of Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism and chanting “Get Brexit Done”.

Tory aides have closely controlled the PM’s appearances since a chaotic day on Monday. Johnson pocketed a journalist’s phone during a TV interview rather than look at a picture of a four-year-old boy asleep on the floor at a Leeds hospital.

Later that day, the Conservatives were accused of fabricating a story about an assault on an adviser to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, which they later conceded had not taken place.

On Wednesday, as they shepherded journalists around from one campaign stop to another, Conservative aides at times appeared tired, and irked by the furore created by the fridge incident.

Johnson himself had insisted throughout the day before that a hung parliament remained a distinct possibility, and that they were fighting for every vote. That was widely regarded as more about motivating voters than a genuine fear that Johnson could be left without a majority on Friday.

However, the YouGov projection, using the same method that pointed to a hung parliament in 2017, suggested that a hung parliament was within the margin of error.