Boris Johnson’s father has been heckled by a live television audience on election night after defending his son’s remarks about the Muslim veil – and making it worse.
Appearing on Channel 4’s alternative election coverage, he said that the remarks had been “taken out of context”.
“Most of the things that have been said against him have taken the article out of context. And I don’t want to go further down this route, but I will say, if I was a female fighter jet pilot, I would expect someone to say ‘don’t wear a burqa’.”
Fellow television guest Nish Kumar held his head in his hands as he asked: “What are you talking about man?!”
Presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked him to repeat what he said, to which he did.
“I said if I was a female fighter jet pilot, there have to be circumstances where…”
“You can’t be allowed to say that,” said one in the audience, to cries, gasps and boos.
“You’d expect them to be qualified, and that’s the only thing that matters,” said Robert Rinder.
“Robert Rinder, have you ever flown a plane,” responded Johnson.
“Don’t be so absurd,” replied Rinder. “How dare you sit there and use language like that. That is disgraceful and it shouldn’t require Nish to have to defend that.
“Whether I’m a person of the left or the right you don’t sit there and use the platform that you’ve been gifted to sit there to say anything else. And people who want to defend our country should do so in circumstances where they’re adequately qualified.”
Rinder went on to say that Johnson was “talking rubbish”, He was praised by audiences as host Guru-Murthy pleaded with the audience not to boo the guests.
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