They may have egged him on, but they didn't egg him

Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson stands in front of Clifford's tower in York, where he was travelling on the Vote Leave campaign bus ahead of the EU referendum in June. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

This blond-mopped politician, with a penchant for throwing out an indecipherable soundbite was atop his temporary podium looking a little bit uneasy.

He thought he was going to be egged by a protester. Whispers had gone around that a young chap in the crowd in York had eggs in his pockets. In reality, the only egg I saw was on the ground and well and truly smashed, but it was enough of a threat for Vote Leave to jump into Operation Protect Boris.

Boris says Brexit will not harm farming industry

Boris in top gear as he warns of  Stay camp’s smoke and mirrors

As the red Vote Leave battle bus rolled into Parliament Street, campaign staff jumped out and held up bright red Vote Leave placards as a temporary  barrier to stop any chicken- based products fly through the air.

Had one been launched from the chatty young man mentioning democracy and the NHS, then Vote Leave were ready to swat it out the sky and re-aim it somewhere in the direction of Browns Department Stores.

Boris was vulnerable, but what he did not have in Vote Leave placard weaponry he made up for in a quick repost.

Picking the young lad out of the crowd, he said: “There’s a young man here who had eggs he was going to throw at me, can you believe it?

“There are people hungry in this country, my friend. Don’t waste those eggs.”

On the battle bus I took a pew next to the head of the Vote Leave operation in the Yorkshire and Humber area Roger Tattersall, where we talked eggs for a while longer.

He had seen the young lad with one in his hand, and using some none-contact tai-chi moves, he told me he tricked him into momentarily losing his balance causing it to drop.

Next up was a trip to Ginetta car plant at Garforth, Leeds, where multi-millionaire owner and Brexiteer Lawrence Tomlinson took Boris on a tour and then for a spin in the parking lot where he pulled a series of doughnuts.

Emerging from the car with white smoke billowing behind him, he said triumphantly: “Right, we are taking back control”

That control lasted for  about an hour as he had to face the Press next. A reporter said that at Ginetta’s he had been overheard saying he made up his motoring columns for GQ magazine. He said: “For heaven’s sake. I used words like ‘corn thrusters’ and ‘grabbing pins’ in the course of semi-satirical articles. I was specifically not hired by GQ to give a serious analysis of cars.”