HOW do you solve an interview problem like Boris? It is a question considered by many a journalist when planning a sit down with the Prime Minister.

The answer? It depends which Boris turns up.

Is it blustering Boris, talking a mile a minute and treating any interjection as a wall of cardboard bricks to be driven through at speed? BBC Today presenter Mishal Husain encountered that Boris, eventually pleading with the PM to “please stop talking”.

Then there is combative Boris, the one who has done a little prep for the interview and hopes this, with some aggro, will see him through.

This Boris was in evidence when Andrew Neil interviewed him during the 2019 Conservative leadership contest. In a style reminiscent of an Abbott and Costello routine, the pair tussled over what various parts of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) did or did not say.

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When Mr Johnson had to admit he had no idea what was in a certain paragraph he came out fighting, attacking Neil for “defeatism” and “negativity”.

How about jocular, classics-quoting, attempting to be charming Boris?

Marr encountered each of these versions in an interview to mark the opening of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. Last week it had been Labour’s turn. Their get together had taken place amid talk of a crisis for Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership if he did not face down the left over party rule changes. In the event, he fared better than expected. Ditto with his leader’s speech on the Wednesday. So much for a crisis conference.

The Conservatives, however, were meeting against a backdrop of genuine headaches, whether it was the fuel shortages, empty shelves in the shops, or the looming tax rises and energy price hikes. As the governing party, they might have been expected to be on the end of a public backlash, but the opinion polls told a different story.

A survey by Opinium published on the eve of the conference put the Conservatives on 39% and Labour four points behind. This was despite 69% of those polled thinking the government had responded badly to the HGV driver shortage, 67% blaming them for the current crisis, and almost half (49%) believing Brexit was having a negative impact on the UK economy.

The public might be taking a dim view of the Government’s performance but they are not punishing them for it in the polls, or at least not yet. Was this the Boris factor kicking in, a sign that his popularity in certain parts meant his party could defy the laws of political gravity?

Marr was the Sunday show host best placed to find out. He thought many Conservatives were feeling “jumpy and grumpy”. Did the Prime Minister agree with his Chancellor that the lorry driver shortage would persist right up to Christmas?

Mr Johnson went around the houses for a spell, arguing that there were not enough lorry drivers the world over, even in China.

Marr persisted. Was Rishi Sunak right? At first the Prime Minister said he was, but then added that it depended on how you interpreted what the Chancellor had said.

On how long it would be till the new drivers were on the road, the answer to that too was lost in a cloud of bluster.

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Marr moved on to the shortage of butchers. Was the Prime Minister aware that 120,000 pigs would have to be killed and incinerated because there were not enough abattoir workers to process them?

“That would be the single biggest cull of healthy animals ever to happen in the history of British agriculture,” said Marr. “You have ten days to deal with that, what are you going to do?

Mr Johnson opted for facetiousness at first, saying: “I hate to break it to you, Andrew, but I’m afraid our food processing industry does involve killing a lot of animals.

“What you’re talking again about is an issue to do with a shortage of another particular type of workforce. Actually, what I think needs to happen is again there is a question about the types of jobs that are being done, the pay that is being offered, the levels of automation, the levels of investment.”

The back and forth ended with Mr Johnson saying: “The great hecatomb of pigs that you describe has not yet taken place, let’s see what happens.”

Marr ended with tax increases under a Conservative Government. You are more like Wilson than Thatcher, he teased the Prime Minister.

Neither of them had had to deal with the “fiscal meteorite” that was Covid, countered Mr Johnson, finally saying that he would not raise taxes further “if I can possibly avoid it”.

With that the verbal cut and thrust was over, till the next time.

Earlier, it was Andy Burnham, mayor of Manchester and a man seen by some as a Labour leader in waiting, in the Marr hotseat.

You looked as though you had a wasp in your mouth while watching Sir Keir’s speech last week, said Marr.

Not at all, said Mr Burnham. “That’s a face that says ‘I’m listening to what’s being said.”

Marr said the politician known to admirers as “the king of the north” could end all speculation about his leadership ambitions by agreeing with the phrase, “Keir Starmer is doing a good job and I, under no circumstances, am going after his job.”

Mr Burnham: “Yeah, I’ll agree with that.”

Either it was very hot in the BBC's Salford studios, or that wasp had returned, but the mayor had gone as red as a Labour rose.