Guto Harri given ‘both barrels’ by Prime Minister over Golwg360 ‘not a total clown’ interview

Downing Street’s new Director of Communications, Guto Harri, was given “both barrels” by Boris Johnson over his interview with Welsh language news website Golwg360 in which he called the Prime Minister “not a total clown”.

UK Government sources told the Daily Mail that Boris Johnson was unamused by the interview, had “read him the riot act” and that Guto Harri agreed not to do another one on the record.

“This is not bloody rocket science,” the source said. “What he did yesterday was not helpful in the slightest.

“‘The PM gave it to him with both barrels on Monday afternoon, and Guto has now said he will not be talking on the record again. It’s fair to say the PM was not the only person he got it in the neck from.’

A Downing Street source however denied the Prime Minister had reprimanded Guto Harri over the interview. But the Daily Mail understood that he had agreed not to give further on-the-record media interviews while in post.

Guto Harri had told Golwg360 that Boris Johnson offered to take the knee and sang ‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor in a meeting in which he appointed the Welsh speaking broadcaster as his new Director of Communications.

‘Likeable’

Harri told Welsh language news website, Golwg360: “I went in to see the Prime Minister at 5 o’clock on Friday after filming Y Byd yn Ei Le in Barry, and I went in through the Cabinet Office in Whitehall in order to avoid being seen in the street and went through the narrow corridors in Downing Street to his office.

“Even though I hadn’t seen him in the flesh for some years, we picked things up where we had left them in terms of the tone of our friendship.

“I walked in and I made a salute and said ‘Prime Minister, Guto Harri reporting for duty’, and he stood up from behind his desk and began taking the salute but then he said ‘What am I doing, I should take the knee for you.’

“And the both of us were laughing. Then I asked him ‘Are you going to survive Boris?’. And he said in his deep voice, slowly and purposely, but starting to sing a little and finishing the sentence by saying ‘I Will Survive’.

“In an inevitable way he was inviting me to say ‘You’ve got all your life to live’ and he answered ‘I’ve got all my love to give’, and so we had a little blast of Gloria Gaynor! No one expects that, but that’s how it was.”

“There was a lot of laughing and we sat down to have a serious discussion about how to get the government back on track, and how we are going to move forward.

“Everyone’s attention on the recent events has created a lot of pain, but in the end, that doesn’t have anything to do with the way the people voted two years ago.

“He isn’t a total clown, but he’s a very likable character.

“90% of our discussion was very serious but it shows that he’s a character and that there is fun to be had. He isn’t a diabolical man in the way that some people mischaracterise him.”