Boris Johnson cites Jews, Bangladeshis as immigrants that shaped British culture

Prime ministerial hopeful complains there are too many areas in UK where English isn’t a first language, hails country’s ‘amazing’ experience with immigrants

By ToI Staff 6 July 2019, 8:41 am

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Conservative MP and leadership contender Boris Johnson takes part in a Conservative Party Hustings event in Perth, Scotland, on July 5, 2019. (Andy Buchanan/AFP)

UK prime ministerial contender Boris Johnson on Friday called for all immigrants in Britain to learn English and cited Jews as an immigrant community that has influenced British culture.

Johnson, who is the frontrunner to replace Prime Minister Theresa May as Conservative Party leader, said the British experience with immigration has been “amazing” and that learning English allows newcomers to “take part in the economy and in society,” according to HuffPostUK.

He singled out Jews who fled Tsarist Russia, Bangladeshis and French Huguenots as immigrant groups that “adapted and they have made their lives and they have helped to make our national culture and they have bought into it.”

Johnson, who was speaking at a Conservative Party event in Darlington, said the “the most important thing” for immigrants was “to be and to feel British… and to learn English”

“Too often there are parts of our country and parts of London still and other cities as well where English is not spoken by some people as their first language,” he said, as English allows immigrants “to take part in the economy and in society.”

In this photo dated June 21, 2018, Britain’s then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson talks during a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw, Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

His comments were denounced by a number of Scottish and Welsh lawmakers whose constituents speak Gaelic and Welsh.

“Boris is just moronic & clueless. Same arrogance of centuries past that did down native Celtic languages for the Germanic import. Multilingualism please Boris and drop the cultural imperialism,” MP Angus MacNeil of the Scottish Nationalist Party tweeted.

During the event, Johnson was also asked about his tendency to make gaffes.

“I am proud of many of them,” he said. “When people say you’re making a gaffe what you’re really doing is saying something that is true and necessary.”

A former foreign secretary, Johnson is considered a strong favorite to defeat current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative leadership race.

As the Conservatives hold a majority in Parliament together with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, the victor in the leadership contest is expected to succeed May as premier.