BORIS, Y YOU MUPPET!

PM MOCKED FOR TAKING AIM AT KERMIT THE

BORIS JOHNSON has been savaged for referencing Kermit The Frog during a speech about climate change.

Social media users mocked the prime minister for insisting the Muppet’s character was wrong when he sang ‘It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green’.

His bizarre comment came as he implored the world to help tackle global warming. He said Earth is not ‘some indestructible toy’ but conceded a rise in temperatures was inevitable as we try to ‘restrain that growth’.

The address was the last stop on Mr Johnson’s visit to the US, which has seen discussions held on trade, the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.

But it was his reference to Jim Henson’s Muppet that drew attention.

As his audience sat in stony silence, Mr Johnson said Kermit was wrong when he sang It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green, adding it was ‘easy, lucrative and right’.

One social media user wrote: ‘Did Boris Johnson really quote Kermit the Frog in his UN speech? Seriously?’

Another shared a picture of the fictional frog looking sad, with the caption: ‘Kermit when he finds out Boris used him in a speech.’

And the Have I Got News For You Twitter feed noted: ‘Time for humanity to “grow up” on climate change, says Boris Johnson, moments before quoting Kermit the Frog.’ Mr Johnson, who addressed the UN Assembly yesterday, said the world ‘is not some indestructible toy, some bouncy plastic romper room against which we can hurl ourselves to our heart’s content.

‘Daily, weekly, we are doing such irreversible damage that long before a million years are up, we will have made this beautiful planet effectively uninhabitable – not just for us but for many other species. And that is why the Glasgow COP26 summit is the turning point for humanity.’

The UN summit is being held in Glasgow in November to ‘accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement’, a treaty aimed at keeping the rise in global temperatures to below 2C.

Mr Johnson’s eco focus is a far cry from his past climate-sceptic views.

He admitted this week that if you looked at his articles from 20 years ago you would find comments ‘that weren’t entirely supportive of the current struggle’. But he said: ‘Facts change and people change their minds and change their views and that’s important too.’

He called on countries to cut their carbon emissions by 68 per cent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, praised the end of China’s international financing of coal, and congratulated Pakistan’s pledge to plant 10billion trees.