Boris Johnson has found an unusual new hobby since being booted out of Number 10.
The former PM is using his downtime to master his skills at painting cows, he told close ally Nadine Dorries in an interview to be screened tomorrow.
Mr Johnson, now a backbench MP who has trousered more than £1 million giving speeches since he left Downing Street, said he's enjoying relaxing by learning to paint the farmyard animals.
He told Ms Dorries: “I’ve got a project which is to master the form of the cow."
It's not the first time he's spoken about his love of painting. Back in 2019, when he was campaigning to succeed Theresa May as PM, he said he enjoyed relaxing by painting buses.
He told Talk Radio at the time: “I like to paint. Or I make things. I have a thing where I make models of buses.
"What I make is, I get old, I don’t know, wooden crates, and I paint them. It’s a box that’s been used to contain two wine bottles, right, and it will have a dividing thing. And I turn it into a bus.
“So I put passengers – I paint the passengers enjoying themselves on a wonderful bus – low carbon, of the kind that we brought to the streets of London, reducing C02, reducing nitrous oxide, reducing pollution.”
The ex-Tory leader will be the first guest on new TalkTV show Friday Night With Nadine, airing at 8pm.
During the interview, he will also defend himself against allegations of misleading Parliament, for which he is currently being investigated.
Earlier today The Mirror reported that the government's spending watchdog is looking into whether billing taxpayers £220,000 defending Mr Johnson over the Partygate scandal is money well spent.
It emerged this week that legal fees had rocketed as the former Prime Minister battles allegations that he misled Parliament.
Labour has piled pressure on Rishi Sunak to "stand up" to Mr Johnson and make him pay for it himself.
Keir Starmer taunted him at PMQs this week, saying: "Surely even this Prime Minister can put his foot down and stand up to his old boss and say he made this mess, he can pick up the bill?"
The National Audit Office (NAO) has now confirmed it is "seeking further information" and would be considering the matter as part of its audit.
No decision has been made on whether to launch a formal investigation.
In a clip released today the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip said: "As you know there’s a Parliamentary Committee looking into some aspects of this and I had better be respectful of them.
"But I’ll just repeat what I've said before, and I hope it's obvious to everybody, that anybody who thinks I was knowingly going to parties that were breaking lockdown rules in No10, and then knowingly covering up parties that were illicit that other people were going to, that’s all strictly for the birds.
"And if anybody thinks like that they’re out of their mind.”
