Out of sight, out of mind: BoJo grabs journo’s phone, puts it in pocket when asked about 4yo sleeping on hospital floor (VIDEO)

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson snatched a journalist’s phone out of his hand and, in a bizarre move, stuck it in his own pocket after the reporter tried to show him a photo of a sick boy forced to sleep on a hospital floor.

Johnson’s interview with ITV’s Joe Pike went awry when the reporter sought to confront him about the fate of a four-year-old boy with suspected pneumonia who hit the headlines after he had to sleep on the floor of an emergency department in Leeds due to a lack of beds.

Pike posted a video of his encounter with Johnson on Twitter. At one point, he showed BoJo a photo of the child on his phone and asked the PM how it made him feel. Johnson initially tried to simply ignore the question, going on to talk about his government’s plan to “put a record investment into the NHS [National Health System] now.”

Still not content with the answer, the journalist pressed on with his question, prompting Johnson to snatch the reporter’s phone from his hand and put it into his own pocket while continuing to talk as though nothing has happened. “Let me tell you, I haven’t had a chance to look. I’ll study it later. I’ll give you an interview now,” BoJo said as he sought to shift the focus of the conversation onto Brexit.

The footage does not clearly show the moment when the device was taken. Yet, when Pike confronted Johnson on his actions, the prime minister apologized, produced the journalist’s phone from his pocket and finally took a look at the photo of the boy.

He also apologized to the boy’s mother and “those who have terrible experiences in the NHS,” but appeared to be unrelenting when it came to issues of healthcare service shortages in general. “What we are doing is supporting the NHS and on the whole, I think patients in the NHS have a much, much better experience than this poor kid has had,” Johnson said.

The incident immediately sparked a wave of condemnation from the opposition, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeting that Johnson “just doesn’t care.” Many social media users also weighed in after Pike’s video, saying “shame on you” to the PM for refusing to even look at the boy’s plight and calling Johnson a “disgrace.”

Locked in a bitter election contest ahead of the December 12 vote, Johnson’s Conservatives and the Labour Party have locked horns over healthcare in particular. Labour has repeatedly accused the Tory government of planning to sell off the NHS to US corporations as part of its secret trade talks. Johnson dismissed the claim as “absolute nonsense.”

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