BBC Question Time: Wetherspoon boss says Boris Johnson isn't 'out and out racist'

JD Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin was mocked for saying Boris Johnson was not an 'out and out racist' on BBC Question Time.

Labour MP Laura Pidcock jokingly asked '[he's] just a casual one then?' in response to Martin's defence of the Tory leadership front runner.

The pub magnate supported Johnson after Pidcock claimed the former Foreign Secretary was 'fuelled' by racism and homophobia.

Pidcock said: "He is deplorable he is fuelled by racism, he is fuelled by homophobia.

Tim Martin said he did not think Johnson was an 'out and out racist' (BBC)

Pidcock accused Johnson of being fuelled by toxic forces (BBC)

"What about the letterbox comment, what about the picaninny comment?"

However, Martin replied: "I really don't think he is an out and out racist."

Pidcock shot back with 'just a casual one then', sparking laughter and applause from the audience.

She clashed with pub boss Tim Martin over Boris Johnson (BBC)

Boris Johnson was accused of fuelling racism by a Labour MP on Question Time (eyevine)

Tory minister Kwasi Kwarteng described the MP's joke as a 'low blow' and denied that Johnson was racist.

Martin added: "It's easy to accuse people of racism, I just don't think he is, nor do I think any of the top politicians are for all their faults. I'm sure he isn't and I think it is a low blow."

Lib Dem MP Ed Davey said Johnson was not the man to heal the country's divisions and said he had made 'racist, Islamophobic and homophobic' comments.

Boris Johnson described black people as “flag-waving piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles” in a 2002 column for the Daily Telegraph.

He apologised for his language six years later.