Been thinking a lot about this and I've concluded that were I BoJo's spin doctor I'd now be advising him not to do an Andrew Neil interview. Will do a short thread on why 1/

The fact is Neil is indeed the most forensic and toughest interviewer who has attained huge traction with his taking apart of Sturgeon and, crucially, Corbyn. 2/

Neil jealously guards his reputation for dishing it out to all and sundry, but given he's known to come from the right-of-centre "tribe" and now has 2 left-of-centre victims to his name, he will be utterly determined to inflict at least as much damage on Boris to prove a point 3/

And Neil v Boris would instantly become the ONLY significant media event of the campaign, with a huge build up and huge audience. 4/

And remember, this is not a normal election. It is about clearing the way for Brexit. The Remain media establishment - esp the broadcasters who nearly all lean to Remain - will be absolutely desperate to hype any Boris discomfort from the interview 5/

Boris has a lot of tricky areas that no amount of prep can shield from Neil. Neil just has to select the most difficult three and do what he does so well to make the interview ripe for writing up as a "massacre" 6/

And because Neil is known to come from the centre-right, any counter spin "he was out to get us" operation would lack any credibility or salience. 7/

And while refusing the interview will be embarrassing for the Beeb and enrage Corbynistas and be thought "not cricket" by some, so what? Corbyn's people made a mistake not to check that BoJo was nailed down. Neil does not have a divine right to interview the PM. 8/

So my advice would be to do short-notice interviews with senior "working" political journalists instead, Eg Laura Kuensberg. They will be more restrained because of a proper concern not to burn contacts. And in any case if they do trip up the PM it will have far less impact. 9/

Offering to do Marr also a cute move as that offers a distracting comparison of whether Marr will perform as well as Neil and it will get far lower ratings. 10/

I suspect BoJo will want to do Neil for vanity reasons and not wanting to be called a wuss. But his advisers should tell him sorry, suck it up. You winning this election is more important than your injured pride. The End. 11/