BORIS JOHNSON has been slammed for a catastrophic speech to business leaders, rambling on about Peppa Pig rather than addressing broken promises on northern rail or the Tory sleaze scandal. 

The Prime Minister defended his speech at the CBI conference on Tyneside today, having enthused about a visit to Peppa Pig World and pretended to be a car. 

Mr Johnson told ITV: “I think that people got the vast majority of the points that I wanted to make and I thought it went over well.”

Mr Johnson, who also compared himself to Moses, described Peppa Pig as “pure genius,” citing the cartoon as an example of the ingenuity of the private sector. 

In a speech due to focus on green technologies, the blithering 57-year-old ex-Etonian lost his place for 20 seconds, asked for forgiveness three times and claimed to be emulating Vladimir Lenin by supporting electrification. 

The PM’s disastrous morning has seen him become a figure of ridicule, with trade unions suggesting Peppa Pig herself would make a better politician.

TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said the speech was an attempt to cover up the “great train robbery of the north” announced last week, the government’s deeply disappointing “so-called” integrated rail plan that shelves stretches of the HS2 project.

The rail union leader said: “The sooner this charlatan leaves office, the quicker we can get on with dealing with the reality of the difficult challenges that we face, from climate change to the pandemic. 

“He is at the head of a government mired in scandal. However, he’s right to raise Peppa Pig in one sense: she would be far more effective in Downing Street.”

Transport union RMT’s general secretary Mick Lynch condemned the lack of organisation within the government, claiming it has not the slightest idea about the reality of delivering major infrastructure projects, and that lack of attention to detail risks wrecking the future of our railways.  

He said: “Key schemes long in development are dumped on a whim and, instead, we get the Prime Minister bumbling about like it’s all a big laugh.

“It isn’t, and it’s time this sleazy bunch of chancers either got a grip or shipped out.”

Tom Brake, director of Unlock Democracy, told the Star that the bosses’ confederation would have hoped to hear a coherent PM addressing Tory sleaze and rail in the north, but were instead treated to “a surreal story about Peppa Pig.”