President takes a swipe at Boris

BORIS Johnson was slapped down by Barack Obama yesterday for suggesting his ‘part-Kenyan’ heritage was behind a decision to move a bust of Winston Churchill out of his office.

The London mayor was accused by Labour of ‘racism’ after he launched an attack on the President by saying he may harbour ‘ancestral dislike’ of Britain.

Mr Johnson said it was ‘downright hypocritical’ for the President to intervene in the EU debate, and suggested the decision to get rid of the wartime leader’s bust soon after his election was nothing less than a ‘snub to Britain’.

But Mr Obama hit back, saying he ‘loves’ Churchill and sees a separate bust on the sec- ond floor of his White House residence every day. ‘Right outside the door of the Treaty Room, so that I see it every day … the primary image I see is a bust of Winston Churchill,’ he added. ‘It’s there voluntarily because I can do anything on the second floor. I love the guy.’

In a column in The Sun, the outgoing mayor brought up the issue of the bust, writing: ‘No one was sure whether the President had himself been involved in the decision. Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Church- ill had been such a fervent defender.’ Critics accused Mr Johnson of making a ‘loaded’ attack. Churchill’s grandson, Tory MP Nicholas Soames, said Mr Johnson’s comments showed he was not fit to be prime minister.

John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, said: ‘Mask slips again. Boris part-Kenyan Obama comment is yet another example of dog whistle racism from senior Tories.’

The Prime Minister’s spokesman, asked about the Kenyan comment, said: ‘As the Prime Minister has said, it’s important to engage in the facts and if we look at the issue the mayor raised relating to the bust of Churchill in the Oval Office, this kind of suggestion that he asked for it to be moved is false.’