Boris Johnson has been ‘fired for banging on about his book’ during a guest appearance on Channel 4‘s coverage of the US election.
Mr Johnson was told off for holding up his memoir and plugging it just minutes into the live panel coverage on ‘America Decides: US Presidential Election’.
Channel 4 newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy told Mr Johnson to ‘put it away’ and ‘stop it, enough’ as he referenced his new book and tried to hold it up to viewers.
The Mail columnist was later replaced by Michael Cohen, a former lawyer to Trump, after the incident.
While on air, he revealed that incumbent president Joe Biden was forgetful and would repeat things in meetings before being cut off to head into a break.
Mr Johnson also insisted that Mr Trump was only ever ‘courteous’ and ‘polite’ to him while he was prime minister, as guest Stormy Daniels pointedly asked him whether he would ‘leave his children, his daughter alone with Donald Trump’.
Boris Johnson shows his book while appearing on the Channel 4 election coverage
Boris Johnson appears on the show alongside adult film star Stormy Daniels (C) and author Stacey Johnson-Batiste
Host Krishnan Guru-Murthy said Mr Johnson had been ‘fired’ for ‘banging on’ about his book
But the former prime minister was ultimately let go from the show for his attempts to plug his new book, serialised in the Mail.
Later during the panel discussion, Mr Johnson said he met with former US president and Republican nominee Donald Trump after his attempted assassination in July.
‘In case I failed to mention this, I am promoting my book Unleashed, and I had a talk with him about Ukraine,’ he said.
When asked about following in Mr Trump’s footsteps regarding a political comeback if he was to win the presidential election, Mr Johnson said: ‘The answer is obviously contained in Unleashed where you’ll find the full discussion of this subject.’
Co-host Emily Maitlis told him: ‘We are not all going to read your book, so just tell us, do you want to have a political comeback… You can’t actually answer a single question.’
Mr Johnson responded: ‘By the way Emily I’ve answered all your questions all night.
‘Currently I am blissfully engaged promoting my book Unleashed, available in all good book stores.’
Later in the programme, Mr Johnson was replaced on the Channel 4 panel by Michael Cohen – who served as a lawyer to former president Mr Trump.
Guru-Murthy told viewers: ‘Boris Johnson has been fired for banging on about his book.’
It was not clear whether Mr Johnson’s exit from the programme had been planned or if he had departed early.
Mr Johnson, 60, has been promoting his new memoir titled Unleashed after it was released last month.
The 784-page book looks back on Mr Johnson’s time as prime minister – from 2019 to 2022 – including Brexit and the Covid pandemic.
Mr Johnson, 60, spoke on meeting Donald Trump, before again mentioning Unleashed
The former PM appears on FOX News’ The Story on October 31, also with his book
Channel 4 newsreader Guru-Murthy is at the helm of the channel’s first overnight US election programme since 1992 alongside former Newsnight presenter Maitlis.
Political pundits, and a number of famous faces including Mr Johnson, joined the hosts in the Washington DC studio as the American public decides whether Democratic nominee Kamala Harris or Mr Trump becomes president.
Guests on the programme include Republican supporter and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner, and Stormy Daniels, the woman at the centre of Mr Trump’s hush money trial following an affair between the two.
Daniels, the 45-year-old adult film star, spoke candidly of her anxieties about how Trump’s supporters behaved since she became publicly linked with the former president in the coverage overnight.
‘[Trump supporters] aren’t hiding anymore. They’re using their real screen names, they’re using their real phone numbers.’
‘The threats are more graphic, more targeted, and as we all know when I testified back in May, Trump’s attorneys “accidentally” put a document on the screen of the courtroom that had nothing to do with the case that we were trying that day with my unredacted home address.
‘So I haven’t been home since July, I have been living in an RV and travelling,’ she revealed.
Ms Daniels also claimed that Trump supporters had been calling in threats to live comedy shows she was hosting.
‘Trump supporters were calling in droves and threatening club owners [with] burning down the clubs.’
Ms Daniels briefly clashed with Mr Johnson when he was pressed on whether he would leave his children alone with the former president.
‘My experience of Donald Trump is that when I’ve known him… I hear what you say and maybe I’m wrong but he has been courteous, he has been polite,’ he said, before being cut off by Emily Maitlis.
‘He denied an election that he lost. What does it matter if he’s courteous if he can’t accept the results of democracy and the American voter?’ she retorted.
‘And you’ve heard several people, including me, say that they think that was a terrible thing to do,’ Mr Johnson replied.
He later came back to the point, reifying that there was ‘the orderly transition of power from one administration to the next under the Constitution’.
‘Whatever you say about Donald Trump now he has been contesting this election democratically, fighting for every vote he can get… and as we speak tonight we don’t know what the outcome is going to be,’ he said.
She appeared on Channel 4’s election coverage
At one point, Ms Daniels pointedly asked: ‘If you were prime minister and you and Donald Trump got into a disagreement, as people do with Donald Trump, would you have any fear for the ladies in his life?’
Mr Johnson said: ‘Nothing like that came up. When you’re talking to the US president, the relationship you have as UK prime minister is one of great formality and importance.
‘Of course you develop a friendship, but actually, and I can say this in all sincerity, I never in my time with him was treated with anything other than courtesy and friendliness.’
Speaking to Ms Daniels, he said: ‘Now you had a very different experience, but I can only talk about mine.’
MailOnline contacted Channel 4 for comment.