BORIS UPSETS SIKHS WITH A TEMPLE TALK ABOUT BOOZE
BORIS Johnson was forced to apologise yesterday after he discussed alcohol in a Sikh temple – a religion which forbids drinking.
Dressed in an orange turban for a rare appearance on the campaign trail, the Foreign Secretary promised to end tariffs on the trade of whisky between the UK and India.
But he was berated by furious worshipper Balbir Kaur, 62, who shouted: ‘How dare you talk about alcohol in a Sikh temple?
‘You are standing in a Sikh [temple] talking about alcohol which is absolutely outrageous – it’s absolutely not right.’
The congregation had made desperate attempts to get Mr Johnson to stop talking about alcohol during his speech at the Nirman Sewak Jatha temple in Bristol.
Mr Johnson, whose wife Marina Wheeler is of half-Sikh descent, apologised but aides later insisted his remarks had been ‘warmly welcomed’ by others in the congregation.
During his speech, the Cabinet minister described how travellers had to bring bottles of whisky ‘clinking’ in their bags to India to avoid paying the high tariffs on imported Scotch. Last night Stephen Pound, Labour candidate for Ealing North, said: ‘He is an incompetent, insensitive blunderbuss and, as Foreign Secretary, an increasing liability.’
On the campaign trail last month Mr Johnson branded Jeremy Corbyn a ‘mutton-headed old mugwump’ – sparking a name-calling row.