Johnson dodges UK health woes, seeks to campaign on Brexit

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought Tuesday to get his campaign back to issue of Brexit after coming under fire for his lack of empathy for looking away from an im of child sleeping on a hospital room floor while seeking treatment. story of 4-year-old Jack has overshowed campaigning for Thursday’s general election as Johnson and his Conservatives hunted for crucial votes. opposition Labour Party has painted Jack’s plight — available hospital bed for a sick child — as a symptom of Britain’s ailing health system, which has suffered under years of Conservative government austerity measures.

parties sought to return to key messs on campaign trail, with Johnson’s Conservative Party concentrating on risks of having a divided Parliament and endangering his plan to have Britain leave European Union on Jan 31. Labour kept up its relentless focus on problems with beloved National Health Service.

All 650 seats in House of Commons seats are up for grabs in this election, which is also expected to break Britain’s political impasse over Brexit and determine its future relationship with EU.

Johnson’s clumsy reaction to Jack’s plight merely gave it more attention Monday. A video of prime minister briefly declining to look at a cellphone photo of Jack and n placing phone in his pocket has been viewed more than a million times.

In clip of interview, ITV reporter Joe Pike said to Johnson: “You refuse to look at photo. You’ve taken my phone and put it in your pocket, prime minister.”

Johnson n removed phone from his pocket and looked at screen.

“It’s a terrible, terrible photo. And I apologize obviously to families and all those who have terrible experiences in NHS,” he said.