The National:

IT'S not long until we find out who Britain's next prime minister will be and the candidates seem a little out of touch with the average person.

Boris Johnson is in the lead to replace Theresa May on July 22 but a video has revealed he doesn't even know how much the minimum wage is, which is now known as the living wage.

In an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News on Sunday, the Tory leadership hopeful was asked what the living wage was.

In response, Boris said: "Well, it's at or around... £10 or so."

And, unimpressed, Ridge said: "It's quite a lot lower than that. It's £8.21."

In an attempt to rectify his lack of knowledge, Johnson then said that he was actually talking about the London living wage, however, Ridge was still less-than-impressed. 

On 1 April the living wage rose from £7.83 to £8.21 for people aged over 25. But it's even lower for 21-24-year-olds at £7.70 and £6.15 for 18-20-year-olds.

Even the "real" Living Wage, the rate of pay set by the Living Wage Foundation, is lower than the £10 figure Johnson quoted at £9 per hour.

In the interview Johnson was also quizzed on whether he fails to take full responsibility for his actions and words.

In response, he said: "I take personal responsibility, most importantly, for the vote to leave the European Union.

"I played a part in that campaign and I'm very proud of what we did but I take personal responsibility now for what is happening to our country, for the drift and the dither, and the indecision, and the failure to be sufficiently robust in the negotiations which we've seen so far and what I want to add now is my own ability, I think, to lead us out of this mess.

However, when pressed on Brexit, he was still vague: "The money, the £39 billion, I would suspend that in creative ambiguity, wait until we get a deal and then solve the problems of the Northern Irish border."

Johnson has seemingly had previous problems when it comes to what constitutes an acceptable "living salary" and in 2017 The Sunday Times reported that the former foreign secretary had told friends that his annual earnings of £141,405 were "not enough to live on" because of his “extensive family responsibilities”.