BORIS Johnson has been criticised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) for Tuesday's stage-managed trip to Wales, during which reporters were forbidden from recording their interviews.

Mr Johnson toured a farm near Newport and spent much of the visit away from the media, whose representatives had been herded into a nearby outbuilding.

When the time came to interview the prime minister, reporters were limited to one question each and prohibited from using their phones or other devices to record Mr Johnson's responses.

In a statement released today (Wednesday), The NUJ’s Welsh Executive Committee accused the prime minister of "running chicken" from the media.

The committee said it "strongly condemns Boris Johnson’s decision not to allow the Welsh media to record their questions to him during his visit to Wales", adding: "Journalists must be able to hold our elected representatives to account on behalf of the public, and the prime minister’s answers must be publicly available.”

The NUJ committee said this was especially important because the questions posed by Welsh journalists would be different from those asked by London-based media.

Following his visit to the Newport farm, Mr Johnson released a video of the trip via the official @10DowningStreet twitter account for the UK prime minister.

That video showed him talking to staff, holding a hen, and placing eggs into boxes.

The NUJ committee said the visit amounted to a "publicity stunt".

"If the prime minister restricts himself to a single clip for the network pool, plus a brief off-camera 'huddle' with journalists, then essentially the Welsh media is being asked to cover a publicity stunt without the chance to question him," the committee's statement read.

The prime minister's office was contacted for comment.