The UK Prime Minister’s father has sparked anger with his comments about female fighter pilots and burqas during an appearance on an election night TV show.
Speaking on Channel 4’s Alternative Election Night show, Stanley Johnson said, “If I was a female fighter jet pilot, I would expect someone to say ‘don’t wear a burqa.’”
Johnson was defending his son, Boris, who faced accusations of Islamophobia after he compared Muslim women in veils to “letter boxes” and “bank robbers” in a newspaper column.
The comment caused immediate outrage from both the studio panel and the audience. Panelist and comedian Nish Kumar cried out “What are you talking about man?” as the crowd heckled Johnson.
Live: Full results from UK election
As Kumar placed his head in hands, TV judge Robert Rinder, another panelist on the broadcast, labeled the comment as “disgraceful.”
“You would expect them to be qualified and that’s all that matters,” Rinder said. “That is disgraceful.”
The remark came as Johnson’s Conservative party appeared to be on course to secure a strong majority in the House of Commons, according to exit polls from UK broadcasters.
On the same show, the Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan confronted Johnson’s father on the issue of single motherhood.
This comes shortly after his son was criticized for a 1995 newspaper column in which he called the children of single mothers “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate.”
