YOU’RE SO FULL OF BULL, BORIS
Gaffe-prone Johnson infuriates Spanish by backing bloodthirsty traditional ‘sport’
BLUNDERING Boris Johnson was under fire yesterday for causing a new undiplomatic incident.
The Foreign Secretary left Spanish guests at a dinner furious by arguing that trying to ban bullfighting was “political correctness gone mad”.
MPs present at the dinner said Johnson’s “lecture” had not gone down well as many of the Spanish guests were opposed to the bloodthirsty tradition.
One guest said: “He antagonised every Spaniard there. They fumed for the rest of the dinner.
“Bullfighting is the subject of lively debate. Some parts of Spain have banned it.
“The Spanish don’t like people painting a caricature of their country as bullfighting, flamenco and paella.”
One Spanish guest is reported to have told a British MP: “He’s a clown. He’s not fit to represent your country.”
And an industrialist at the dinner in Bath – organised to discuss Brexit and the Catalan crisis – said he “was making fun of the barbaric”.
The Foreign Secretary’s latest gaffe came just days after both Tory and Labour MPs urged Theresa May to sack him over comments he made over British mum Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is being held in Iran.
Johnson claimed Nazanin was in the country training journalists – a statement Tehran insisted was “proof ” she was there as a spy and which could double her jail term.
According to Johnson’s biographer Sonia Purnell, he and sister Rachel reported on animal welfare in Spain and Portugal in 1985, including taking pictures of bullfights. League Against Cruel Sports director of campaigns Chris Luffingham said: “If it’s true Boris Johnson has defended bullfighting, then it’s not political correctness that’s gone mad. “If Boris has attended a bullfight, he would have seen a bull trapped in a small arena and attacked relentlessly with lances and barbed harpoons. “The bull is weakened, confused and tortured before it is killed with a sword.
“If Boris has seen this and still thinks bullfighting is justifiable, defendable or humane, then we’d be seriously concerned about his judgment.”
The Foreign Office said: “The Foreign Secretary was expressing a personal view that he respects this Spanish tradition.
“However, he does not personally support bullfighting and he is proud the UK upholds the highest in animal welfare standards.”