London mayor Boris Johnson under fire over Barack Obama ‘smear’

Boris Johnson has come under fire over his attack on the “part-Kenyan” president Barack Obama.

The Brexit-backing mayor of London said that it was “incoherent”, “inconsistent” and “downright hypo- critical” for the US leader to intervene in the EU referendum row.

But critics accused him of making a “loaded” attack by referring to the president’s ancestry, with Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott claiming Mr Johnson’s “offensive” comments echoed those of the “Tea Party” right-wing tendency in the US.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said Johnson’s decision to describe President Obama as “part-Kenyan” amounts to “dog whistle racism”.

And Downing Street said Mr Johnson was recycling “false” claims about the removal of a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office when Mr Obama became president.

In an article for The Sun, the mayor said “no one was sure whether the president had himself been involved in the decision” to remove the bust.

“Some said it was a snub to Britain,” he said.

“Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire — of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.”

The mayor continued by arguing that Mr Obama and the US would never agree to the kind of arrangements the UK has as a member of the EU: “It is deeply anti-democratic — and much as I admire the United States, and much as I respect the president, I believe he must admit that his country would not dream of embroiling itself in anything of the kind.

“It is incoherent. It is inconsistent, and yes, it is downright hypocritical. The Americans would never contemplate anything like the EU, for themselves or for their neighbours in their own hemisphere. Why should they think it right for us?”

Former Liberal Democrat leader Walter Menzies Campbell of Pittenweem said Mr Johnson’s comments were “an unacceptable smear”.

He said: “Many people will find Boris Johnson’s loaded attack on president Obama’s sincerity deeply offensive.

“If this is an illustration of the kind of diplomacy that we might expect from a Johnson leadership of the Tory Party then heaven help us.

“In truth this attack constitutes an unacceptable smear.”

Shadow international development secretary Ms Abbott said: “Boris dismissing president Obama as ‘half- Kenyan’ reflects the worst Tea Party rhetoric”.

Stephen Wall, former British permanent representative to the EU, said: “Boris Johnson’s comment implying the president of the United States is driven by his ancestral dislike of the British Empire is demeaning to the debate.

“Using that type of language does not reflect Britain’s standing in the world or the country we aspire to be.”