Video: Boris does doughnuts in Leeds, and admits he made up corn thrusters

Mr Johnson was visiting the Ginetta sports car factory near Leeds when he told an engineer that “I used to make it all up” as they discussed auto components.

He said he would write about cars for GQ magazine and talk about “grabbing pins” and “corn-thrusters” but he said: “I never had the faintest idea.”

Asked about his comments later, the Tory MP said: “I said I used words like corn-thrusters and grabbing pins in the course of semi-satirical articles about cars - I think it’s a very different thing from saying I made up my .....”

He added: “I appreciate there might not be many people alive now who say they read my GQ columns on motoring. They were essentially an artistic and rhapsodical production about the joys of motoring. I was specifically not hired by GQ to give a serious analysis of cars.”