The UK's ex-foreign minister has drawn condemnation for his latest outspoken remarks on PM Theresa May's Brexit deal. The furor underlines continuing divisions in the governing Conservative Party.
Image: picture-alliance/empics/V. Jones
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Former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Sunday drew criticism from political colleagues for a description of Prime Minister Theresa May's plan for Brexit that struck many as offensive.
In an article in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Johnson, a strong supporter of Britain's leaving the EU, described the so-called Chequers plan as a "humiliation," saying it amounted to "agreeing to take EU rules, with no say on those rules."
And, in a typically outspoken remark that caused a furor not only in political circles, Johnson said that with May's plan, "we have wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution — and handed the detonator" to the EU.
'Disgusting'
Alan Duncan, a minister at the Foreign Office, said in a tweet that Johnson's remarks constituted "one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics" and that they should bring about "the political end of Boris Johnson."
Another Conservative colleague of Johnson's, Tom Tugendhat, who is a former army officer, spoke on Twitter of having experienced the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Afghanistan at first hand. "Comparing the PM to that isn't funny," he said, calling on Johnson to "grow up."
Among other things, Johnson opposes the plan's proposal to have the UK's Northern Ireland effectively remain in a customs union with the bloc to avoid a hard border with EU member Ireland.
However, his reservations about May's plan for Brexit, hatched at her country house, Chequers, are shared by other euroskeptic lawmakers who want a clean break with the bloc to allow Britain to strike new trade deals around the world.
His article on Sunday has fueled speculation that he might be planning to stage a leadership challenge — though other Conservatives have suggested it was written to divert attention from his marital difficulties after an announcement on Friday that he was to divorce from his wife of 25 years, Marina Wheeler.
Historic policy shift
The plan has also come under attack from EU supporters for allegedly bringing only disadvantages and no benefits from the withdrawal, which will constitute the biggest upheaval in the UK's foreign and trade policy in almost 50 years.
The plan's supporters say that close ties with the EU, the UK's closest trading partner, are necessary to keep the economy strong.
Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29, but definitive plans for the departure are meant to be presented at a summit in October.
Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is no stranger to voicing his mind, even if the results are anything but diplomatic. DW looks at some of Johnson's worst diplomatic blunders.
Image: Reuters/T. Melville
'Hello, is this the Armenian premier?'
In May 2018, Russian pranksters managed to hold an 18-minute long phone call with Johnson by pretending to be Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. During the call, Johnson said the UK would continue to squeeze the Russian regime by targeting London-based oligarchs. The pranksters also brought up the Skripals' poisoning in Salisbury, though Johnson mostly struck to his public pronouncements.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot
Ireland's post-Brexit border like London congestion charge
In February 2018, Boris Johnson likened the challenges posed by the Irish border post-Brexit to the boundaries between different London boroughs. The Irish opposition described the comments as extraordinary, adding that "trivializing the very serious concerns relating to Ireland displays a dangerous ignorance that must be challenged."
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/P. Morrison
Johnson jeopardizes case for British-Iranian mother jailed in Iran
During a foreign affairs committee hearing in November 2017, Johnson said British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been detained in Tehran while "simply teaching people journalism." Her family criticized the foreign secretary for making reportedly misleading comments that jeopardized her case. Iran has long viewed the BBC's Persian broadcasting service as a subversive arm of MI6.
Image: Iran-Emrooz/HRANA
Libya's Sirte could be 'new Dubai' if they 'clear the dead bodies away'
Addressing a UK business forum in October 2017, Johnson told how fighting in Libya had prevented a group of investors from transforming the coastal city of Sirte "into the next Dubai." Johnson added that "the only thing they have got to do is clear the dead bodies away." Downing Street chided him for his remarks, while Johnson accused his critics of having "no knowledge or understanding" of Libya.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Brabo
Johnson accused of 'incredible insensitivity' during Myanmar visit
Johnson was accused of "incredible insensitivity" during a state visit to Myanmar in September 2017, as he recited part of a colonial-era Rudyard Kipling poem in front of local dignitaries at a sacred Buddhist site. Visibly embarrassed, Britain's Myanmar ambassador forced the foreign secretary to stop halfway through his impromptu recital.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/T. Zaw
Johnson compares France's Francois Hollande to POW guard
Johnson caused uproar early on in his career as foreign secretary by comparing then French President Francois Hollande to a WWII prisoner of war guard for seeking to punish the UK for leaving the EU. “If Mr Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anybody who chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War II movie, I don’t think that is the way forward... ” said Johnson.
Image: Reuters/D. Martinez
Johnson likens EU project to Third Reich
In May 2016, as the Brexit campaign was entering its ill-tempered final phase, Johnson told media that European history was marked by repeated attempts to unify the continent. "Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically," Johnson said. “The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. But fundamentally ... there is no underlying loyalty to the idea of Europe.”
Image: Museen der Stadt Nürnberg/Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände
Obama accused of harboring 'ancestral dislike' of the UK
US President Barack Obama's intervention in the Brexit referendum in April 2016 provoked a furious reaction from Johnson. After Obama said the UK would be better off remaining part of the EU, Johnson described the US president "part Kenyan" and accused him of harboring an "ancestral dislike" of the United Kingdom.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Warnand
The president and the goat
After Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan complained about German comedian Jan Böhmermann calling him a "goat f---er" in March 2016, the UK's "Spectator" newspaper, which Johnson used to edit, ran a competition for readers to submit their own poems about Erdogan. Johnson's poem, in which he called the Turkish president from Ankara "a terrific wankerer," was awarded the £1,000 ($1,325, €1,127) prize.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/E. Aydin
The 10-year-old victim of Johnson's competitive edge
In October 2015, Boris Johnson was forced to apologize as his competitive nature on the sports field saw him knock over a 10-year-old during what was supposed to be an informal game of rugby in Tokyo. Despite being bulldozed to the ground by the then-mayor of London, the young Toki Sekiguchi appeared unfazed by the incident, saying later he "enjoyed" meeting Johnson.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Rousseau
The zip-line incident
Johnson sought to mark Team GB's first gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London with a high flying zip-line act. However, as he zipped across Victoria Park, the mayor lost momentum and came to a halt, leaving him dangling above a crowd of mystified onlookers. “I think they needed to test this on somebody going a bit faster,” he told onlookers, before urging them to get him a ladder.
Image: picture-alliance/empics/B. Kendall
Cannibalism in Papua New Guinea
Johnson was lampooned for one of his columns in "The Telegraph" in 2006, in which he compared infighting within the UK's Conservative and Labour parties to "Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing." Johnson issued an openly sarcastic apology, saying he did not mean to insult the people of Papua New Guinea, "who I am sure lead lives of blameless bourgeois domesticity."
Image: Axel Warnstedt
Johnson accuses Liverpool of wallowing in their Hillsborough 'victims' status'
As editor of the "Spectator" in 2004, Johnson claimed that drunken supporters of Liverpool football club were partly to blame for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 fans lost their lives. Johnson went on to accuse Liverpudlians of wallowing in their "victims' status." A coroner's inquest concluded in 2016 that the supporters were unlawfully killed due to police negligence.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Racist portrayal of Africa colonies and DRC
In another column for the "Daily Telegraph" in 2002, Johnson wrote that the Queen loved the Commonwealth "partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies." Also writing ahead of Prime Minister Tony Blair's trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UK's future top diplomat described how "the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles."
