Boris Johnson has ducked out of a meeting with his own backbench MPs in the north of England ahead of an expected drubbing in the Wakefield by-election next week.
The Prime Minister pulled out of speaking at a Yorkshire conference of northern Conservatives on Friday at the last minute.
Johnson instead jetted to Ukraine for another image-boosting meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zolensky, tweeting out a picture of his arrival.
Johnson stole the show as the first western leader to meet Kyiv in April and follows in the wake of other European leaders earlier this week.
Mr President, Volodymyr,
It is good to be in Kyiv again. pic.twitter.com/wbpMuf6YqY— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson)
The cancellation came after the Conservative candidate for the Wakefield by-election compared trust in the Tories to faith in GPs despite the crimes of mass murderer Harold Shipman.
The by-election in which Boris Johnson’s honesty is an issue was caused by the resignation of the disgraced former MP Imran Ahmad Khan after being found guilty of groping a teenage boy.
Johnson had been due to address Tory MPs and party members during a Northern Research Group event in nearby Doncaster, South Yorkshire, on Friday.
The Ukraine visit was kept under wraps even from the conference organisers.
Conservative MP Jake Berry told reporters that he did not know the reason the PM was not there but that the reason will be clarified “in the next hour”.
The Prime Minister has in previous weeks found that an engagement with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zolensky is a convenient get out of difficult situations.
Berry, who represents Rossendale and Darwen, said: “When you have the Prime Minister of your country who is going to come and attend your conference, which is brilliant, and he’s a huge supporter and has been in touch to wish us all the best,
"Occasionally things happen, which I understand will come out in the next hour about why he’s had to cancel the whole of his tour to the North of England today."
“It is an unfortunate thing but at the end of the day, he’s Prime Minister of our country and things come up.”
Earlier on Friday, Business Minister Paul Scully distanced himself from Wakefield candidate Nadheem Ahmed’s Harold Shipman comment, telling LBC: “It’s not a comparison I would have made.”
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