Overview

Boris Johnson Hides In a Fridge or Fridgegate refers to a Good Morning Britain live segment in which they drop in on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during an early visit to the Yorkshire business Modern Milkman. During the visit in early December 2019, Good Morning Britain correspondent Jonathan Swain asked Boris Johnson for a live interview. Johnson denied one and walked into a walk-in fridge.

Background

On December 11th, 2019, Good Morning Britain uploaded "Correspondent Jonathan Swain Doorstops Boris Johnson on His Milk Round" (shown below). The video gained over 77,00 views in a day. That day, The Guardian^[3] reported that "Conservative sources subsequently insisted that Johnson was 'categorically not hiding' in the fridge, from which Johnson emerged carrying a crate of milk bottles – but instead his aides were taking a moment to prep the PM for a separate, pre-agreed interview."

Developments

On December 11th, 2019, many Twitter users mocked Johnson's choice of walking into the fridge while some defended him. Twitter user @certainlysassy gained over 150 likes for tweeting "@BorisJohnson you are doing yourself no favours this morning. A simple chat on camera with @piersmorgan @gmb in the studio would have solved a lot of issues, instead your team make you look an idiot yet again." Twitter^[3] user @DavidAdeola^[3] replied by saying, "He still has a day job in case we’ve forgotten and can’t be spending valuable time to please Neil or Piers for their “gotcha” moment for their gains not the nation’s interest even though they say so" (shown below, left). The reply received 25 likes in a day. Twitter^[2] user @chelleryn99 shared an image of a fridge stationed across from interviewer Andrew Neil with the caption, "Boris Johnson has finally been cornered by Andrew Neil. Now to get him out of the fridge… 😂" (shown below, right). The tweet accumulated over 180 likes in a day.

That day, Twitter user @MTChairPolitics posted a GIF of someone carrying a fridge with the caption, "Live footage of Boris Johnson travelling to his next stop on the final day of campaigning," which received over 2,300 likes and 1,000 retweets in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

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