Khan, Corbyn call on UK PM to sack Johnson
After UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, his close ally London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also called on Prime Minister Theresa May to sack Boris Johnson for doing a poor job as the country’s foreign secretary.
Speaking to BBC on Sunday, Khan said Johnson had not performed his “first duty” and if May was a strong leader she would have already removed the FM for his many diplomatic blunders.
“He has offended the Libyans in relation to what he said about Sirte being ‘the new Dubai should they get rid of the dead bodies’,” Khan said of Johnson, who had to later on apologize for his remarks.
“He’s offended the Americans by saying [former] President Obama is anti-British because he’s ‘part Kenyan’,” Khan argued, noting that Johnson had also angered the Spanish as well as Sikhs.
Questioning May’s logic for picking Johnson in the first place, London’s Muslim mayor said the foreign secretary had done “enough” to leave the job.
Khan’s remarks came after Corbyn attacked Johnson in a statement to the Observer on Saturday night, calling for him to be removed immediately from the job for “undermining our country” and “putting our citizens at risk.”
Blasting Johnson’s Libya remarks as a display of “shocking callousness,” Corbyn wrote that the British foreign minister had a “colonial throwback take on the world.”
“Johnson has not learned how to be diplomatic or represent our country,” Crobyn fired off, citing a litany of undiplomatic statements made by the secretary.
The main opposition leader said the UK needed a top diplomat that could help resolve tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programs, something “Johnson has failed to provide.”
“We’ve put up with him embarrassing and undermining our country through his incompetence and putting our citizens at risk for long enough,” Corbyn concluded. “It’s time for Boris Johnson to go.
Already faced with infighting in her cabinet over Johnson’s past stances on Brexit and other issues, May found herself in a more desperate situation on Sunday night as ministers accused the foreign minister of making secret demands to May.
According to British media, Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove had tried to push May in a leaked letter towards a hard Brexit and limit the influence of those ministers who campaigned against leaving the European Union (EU) in a referendum last year.
Source: Presstv