Johnson: Immigrants to U.K. should be forced to learn English
LONDON >> Boris Johnson, the front-runner to succeed Theresa May as Britain’s prime minister, has said he would require immigrants to Britain to learn English, echoing remarks made by Nigel Farage, the former leader of the populist U.K. Independence Party.
“I want everybody who comes here and makes their lives here to be and to feel British, that is the most important thing. And to learn English,” Johnson said Friday at a gather- ing of Conserva- tive association members, who are voting in a contest between Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary.
“Too often there are parts of our country, parts of London still and other cities as well, where English is not spoken by some people as their first language,” Johnson said. “And that needs to be changed.”
Britain has Englishlanguage requirements for many migrants from outside the European Union, and in the most recent national census, in 2011, 98.7% of people in England and Wales reported being able to speak English well.
The lowest figure for any area was 91.3%, in Newham, an eastern district of London.
Johnson’s remarks were greeted with anger by lawmakers from Scotland and Wales, who represent areas where voters speak Gaelic and Welsh.
A legislator from the Scottish National Party, Angus Macneil, derided Johnson as “moronic and clueless” and compared his remarks to “arrogance of centuries past” that put down “native Celtic languages for the Germanic import.”
Johnson’s pledge underscored his alignment with Farage, who in 2014 complained of hearing too many foreign languages while riding on a train. “Does that make me feel slightly awkward? Yes it does,” Farage said then.
“I don’t feel very comfortable in that situation, and I don’t think the majority of British people do.”
Farage made a strong showing at the elections for the European Parliament in May, has been one of the loudest voices pushing for Britain’s exit from the European Union, set for October.
The voting, already heavily criticized for being open only to 0.3% of British voters, faced fresh attacks Saturday when it emerged that more than 1,000 Conservative Party members had received duplicate ballots.