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Boris’s most shocking gaffes – from rugby tackling a small Japanese child to getting stuck on a zip wire

Every time our new Foreign Secretary has put his foot in it

BORIS Johnson's shock appointment as Foreign Secretary will put some of his Cabinet mates on edge.

The flamboyant ex-mayor's promotion has raised eyebrows - not least because his track record of over seas gaffes and international blunders.

 Boris Johnson
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Our new Foreign SecretaryCredit: Getty Images

From knocking over a small child while playing rugby in Japan to insulting the President of Turkey in a rude poem, Boris's blunders have made headlines around the world.

How will the Blonde-Brexiteer cope with his new diplomatic duties?

We look back at some of his high profile howlers.


 

Boris pens a poem about the President of Turkey calling him a "w**kerer" and suggesting he has sex with goats

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan
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Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan was the subject of Boris's prize winning poemCredit: Getty Images

In May this year Boris won £1,000 in an offensive poetry competition run by The Spectator magazine.

The subject was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

There was a young fellow from Ankara
Who was a terrific w**kerer
Till he sowed his wild oats
With the help of a goat
But he didn't even stop to thankera.

Boris Johnson's £1,000 winning limerick


 

Boris rugby tackles a 10-year-old Japanese boy

London's Mayor Boris Johnson
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Eyes on the prize... Boris doesn't hold back in a game of street rugby with school kidsCredit: Reuters
 Wipe out... Boris sends 10-year-old Toki Sekiguchi to the turf
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Wipe out... Boris sends 10-year-old Toki Sekiguchi to the turfCredit: Reuters

Whilst London Mayor in October 2015, Boris visited Tokyo where he was filmed taking out a school boy during a game of street rugby.

Ten-year-old Toki Sekiguchi, said afterwards: "I felt a little bit of pain but it's OK."

Boris Johnson
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Boris does an impression of the Glico man on the screen behind him during a trip to JapanCredit: i-Images Picture Agency


 

Boris describes black people as “flag-waving piccaninnies”

Boris Johnson
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Boris said the Queen was greeted by 'flag waving piccaninnies' in a 2002 Daily Telegraph columnCredit: Times Newspapers Ltd

Boris was forced to apologise after comments in a Daily Telegraph article in 2002 while he was MP for Henley.

He wrote: "the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies”.

In another section he said: "They say he is shortly off to the Congo.

"No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.”


 

Boris compares the EU to Hitler

Boris Johnson
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Boris criticised the 'EU superstate' with an unfortunate Hitler referenceCredit: i-Images Picture Agency

Boris compared the EU to Hitler's Germany in a Telegraph column, saying the Union was becoming a "superstate".

He added that while bureaucrats in Brussels are using “different methods” from the Nazi dictator, they share the aim of unifying Europe under one “authority”.


 

Boris tells Beijing the Brits invented table tennis

Boris Johnson
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Boris Johnson said China stole table tennis from Victorian EnglandCredit: Getty Images

Boris managed to ruffle feathers during the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he told an audience that the Chinese stole table tennis from a game developed in Victorian England, from a game called "whiff-whaff".

Boris Johnson
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Boris Johnson meets members of the Peking Opera in BeijingCredit: PA:Press Association


 

Boris bails out of Iraq...leaving a massive, unpaid bar bill

Boris Johnson
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Boris leaves a tab in IraqCredit: PA:Press Association

According to the , Boris Johnson's trip to see troops in Iraq ended with him skipping out of town without settling a hefty bar bill.

FOI data shows "costs related to alcohol purchases" during the visit in january 2015.

A spokesman for the then London Mayor said: "The mayor had always intended to settle what was a private drinks bill but an administrative oversight meant that the bill was not settled on his departure.

"The FCO brought this to the attention of the mayor’s office soon afterwards and the mayor personally paid the bill immediately."

We've all used the administrative oversight excuse...


 

Boris compares Hilary Clinton to a "sadistic nurse in a mental home"

Boris Johnson US tour Day 4
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Boris meets Hilary Clinton during his US tourCredit: i-Images

Whilst complimenting Presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton as "the best candidate" to replace George W. Bush, Boris still managed to fluff his lines.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Boris described her as having "a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital".


 

Boris blows a tour of Palestine after "disrespectful" pro-Israel comments

Boris Johnson visit to Israel
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Boris Johnson visit to IsraelCredit: PA:Press Association

A planned visit to Palestine in November 2015 was cancelled after Boris told a Tel Aviv audience that a boycott of Israeli goods was "completely crazy" and supported by "corduroy, jacketed, snaggletoothed, lefty academics in the UK".

Palestinian officials said the comments risked creating protests and accused him of being "misinformed" and "disrespectful".


 

Boris tells David Letterman he could be President

oris Johnson with David Letterman
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Boris on the Late Show with David Letterman in November 2014Credit: PA:Press Association

Boris did his best to keep up the 'eccentric Brit' stereotype in the US with an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Along the way he managed to laugh off New York's ban on fizzy drinks saying about London: "As a city we are not quite as fat - not yet."

He later told Letterman: "I could be president of the United States, technically speaking."

David even got a dig in about his famous blonde mop asking: "How long have you been cutting your own hair?"


 

Boris says women use University to meet men

Boris Johnson
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Boris groupies flock to see him during a trip to PekingCredit: PA:Press Association

At the World Islamic Economic Forum Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that 68 per cent of women were going to be attending university.

Boris quipped: "They have got to find men to marry."


 

Boris says Britain should be in charge of Africa

Boris Johnson
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BoJo points to his London bus during a trip to Hong KongCredit: Getty Images

Writing in the Spectator in 2002, at the time he was the magazine editor, .

On Africa he wrote: "The problem is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more."


 

Boris makes a joke about Papua New Guinea and cannibal orgies

Boris Johnson
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Johnson's appointment as Foreign Secretary is likely to raise eyebrows after he blazed a trail of high-profile gaffes and controversies on the international stageCredit: PA:Press Association

Writing in the , BoJo made a heavy handed comparison to party political in-fighting and cannibalism in Papua New Guinea.

He wrote: "For 10 years we in the Tory Party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing."

He later said he would “add Papua New Guinea to my global itinerary of apology.”


 

Our new Foreign Secretary...look out world...

 

Boris Johnson
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Boris gets stuck on a London zip-line in 2012Credit: Barcroft Media
Boris Johnson zip line
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Boris left dangling over Victoria ParkCredit: London News Pictures


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