The Foreign Secretary seemingly has a propensity for gaffes – some more serious than others – which have previously infuriated his colleagues, Downing Street, and led to repeated calls for his resignation. All in 16 months. Here The Independent looks at some of Mr Johnson’s most damaging and humiliating blunders at the helm of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Mistaken claims about British mother detained in Iran
During a select committee in Westminster the Foreign Secretary erroneously said a British mother – currently detained in Iran – was training journalists in the region. After Mr Johnson’s comments the 38-year-old Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was hauled in front of an Iranian court and told her sentence may be doubled to ten years.
He has since faced calls to resign and make a public apology or admission. But his Cabinet colleague Liam Fox insisted on Tuesday that people should not overreact to “slips of the lounge”.
Libya ‘dead bodies’ remark
At the Conservative Party conference Mr Johnson was widely condemned after claiming the Libyan city of Sirte would have a bright future as a luxury resort once they “cleared the dead bodies away”.
When asked about a recent visit to Libya, where fighting continues six years after Britain’s intervention to oust Muammar Gaddafi, he praised the “incredible country” with “bone white sands”.
He added: “There’s a group of UK business people, some wonderful guys who want to invest in Sirte on the coast, near where Gaddafi was captured and executed.
“They have got a brilliant vision to turn Sirte into the next Dubai. The only thing they have got to do is clear the dead bodies away.”
Described Africa as 'that country'
Reflecting on his first three months in the job at the previous Tory conference – in 2016 – Mr Johnson referred to Africa as “that country” as he painted the world a “less safe, more dangerous and more worrying” place than it was 10 years ago.
Talked about whisky exports in a Sikh temple
In May the Foreign Secretary was berated in Bristol at a Sikh temple for talking about increasing whisky exports to India – despite alcohol being forbidden in the Sikh faith.
In a recording of the incident from the BBC, a female worshipper asks: “How dare you talk about alcohol in a Sikh temple?”. The Foreign Secretary apologised.
Hollande and WW2
During a visit to India in January Mr Johnson appeared to liken Francois Hollande, the former French President, to a Second World War German general and wanting to administer World War Two-style “punishment beatings”.
He said: “If Mr Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anybody who seeks to escape [the EU], in the manner of some World War Two movie, I don’t think that is the way forward, and it’s not in the interests of our friends and partners.
“It seems absolutely incredible to me that, in the 21st century, member states of the EU should be seriously contemplating the reintroduction of tariffs or whatever to administer punishment to the UK.”
Ambassador stops Boris reciting colonial poem in Myanmar temple
The British ambassador to Myanmar was forced to stop Boris Johnson mid-sentence as he recited the colonial-era Rudyard Kipling poem in the country’s most sacred temple. In the “stunning” gaffe from January Mr Johnson also referred to a golden statue in the Shwedagon Padoga temple as a “very big guinea pig” and soon after burst into verse.
As he recited the poem, the British Ambassador to the country, Andrew Patrick, grew visibly tense.
When the Foreign Secretary said the poem's third line – “the wind is in the palm trees ... the temple bells they say” – Mr Patrick decided to interject.
“You're on mic,” he said. “Probably not a good idea.”
Mr Johnson replied: “What, The Road to Mandalay?”
“No,” the ambassador said, “not appropriate.”
Prosecco row
In November last year Mr Johnson was ridiculed by his European counterparts after a bizarre row about who would sell more fish and chips or prosecco after Brexit. Italian economic minister Carlo Calenda said Mr Johnson’s approach appeared to be based on “wishful thinking”.
“He basically said: ‘I don’t want free movement of people but I want the single market,’” Mr Calenda told Bloomberg. “I said: ‘No way.’ He said: ‘You’ll sell less prosecco.’ I said: ‘OK, you’ll sell less fish and chips, but I’ll sell less prosecco to one country and you’ll sell less to 27 countries.’ Putting things on this level is a bit insulting.”
The row came after Mr Johnson claimed it was “bollocks” that free movement of people is one of the European Union’s founding principles.
