The Scottish BBC journalist Eddie Mair, whose interview with London Mayor Boris Johnson caused controversy earlier this week, has spoken for the first time about the affair.

In an discussion with journalism students from Northampton University, Mair talked about the interview in which he asked Mr Johnson whether he was "a nasty piece of work".

The BBC has received nearly 600 complaints about the interview.

The four students were visiting the BBC studios to watch the broadcast of the Andrew Marr show, on which Mr Mair was a stand-in presenter.

Mr Mair was asked whether the Mayor's discomfort at the line of questioning either stopped him from questioning or made him want to dig deeper.

The Dundonian presenter said: "No, we kind of did... we achieved what we wanted out of it, which was to look in detail at some of the stuff that appeared in the [BBC] documentary that is a less cuddly picture of Boris than the public know, and to get him to talk about that."

Mr Mair added: "I think we made him think a little, or at least slightly unsettled him from his usual, very measured and very confident performance."