The former Spectator editor refused to take back remarks he wrote in men's magazine GQ which labelled Portsmouth 'one of the most depressed towns in the south'.

But he appeared to be finally making a climbdown in the latest issue of GQ by saying: 'I love Portsmouth. It's all nonsense.'

But then, in a bid to justify the comments that whipped up a storm of controversy and led to calls for him to be sacked from the shadow cabinet, he added: 'I said about Portsmouth that there was too much drugs, obesity and underachievement. And there is. It's a statistical fact. Why shouldn't I be allowed to say that?'

And Mr Johnson appears to have been personally taken aback by the angry reaction of local MPs, who branded him a 'buffoon and a prat', and demanded he apologise.

He said: 'To top it all some local bloke went on the radio and called me fat.'

Portsmouth North Labour MP Sarah McCarthy-Fry said: 'How can it be statistically accurate to say Portsmouth is a town and there are too many Labour MPs when there is only me?

'He breezes in here, makes sweeping statements and then refuses to come and see the nice side of Portsmouth when he is invited. That displays an arrogance.'