Boris Johnson brews up fresh divide by bringing reporters cups of tea

Boris Johnson’s decision to bring tea to reporters and pester them until they took one has seen him compared to Father Ted’s housekeeper Mrs Doyle today.

Footage of the extraordinary moment the ex-foreign secretary emerged from his Oxfordshire house with a tray of hot drinks has been watched more than 3.8 million times since yesterday.

But rather than answer any questions or apologise for comparing a woman in a burka to a letter box he batted away questions with a cheery: ‘Will you have a cup of tea?’  

When pushed he said: ‘I have nothing to say about this matter except to offer you some tea.’ 

Many compared him to Mrs Doyle from Father Ted, whose catchphrase was: ‘Would you like a cup of tea, father?’ and would say ‘go on, go on’ until he had one.

Boris Johnson left his Oxfordshire home today as the burka storm raged on but this time didn’t bring tea for the waiting reporters and photographers

Boris Johnson brings tea for members of the press outside his home in Thame, Oxfordshire yesterday - and pestered them into taking a hot drink

Boris Johnson brings tea for members of the press outside his home in Thame, Oxfordshire yesterday – and pestered them into taking a hot drink

Mr Johnson's insistence to focus on the tea rather answering any questions led to the comparison to Mrs Doyle from Father Ted

Mr Johnson’s insistence to focus on the tea rather answering any questions led to the comparison to Mrs Doyle from Father Ted

Other said that his decision to shuffle out with hot drinks was a typically British response to the crisis engulfing the Tories.

Oli Coyle branded the incident: ‘The most British & Boris thing ever! Cup of tea anyone??’ 

What did Boris Johnson say about the burqa and the niqab?

The ex Foreign Secretary sparked a storm of controversy after using his weekly newspaper  column to compare women who wear burqas to letterboxes and bank robbers. 

The burqa is a full face covering that is associated with a conservative interpretation of Islam. 

It is different to the hijab, which leaves the face uncovered, or the niqab, which leaves the eyes exposed.

In his Daily Telegraph article Mr Johnson said that he felt ‘fully entitled’ to expect women who wear face coverings to take them off when talking to him at his MP surgery.

He also said schools and universities are entitled to take the same approach if a pupil comes in ‘looking like a bank robber’.

Mr Johnson branded the burqa ‘oppressive’ and said it is ‘weird and bullying to expect people to cover their faces’.

He added that he could not find scriptural authority for the dress code in the Koran.

And he said ‘it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes’.  

Another tweeted: ‘Haha! Priceless! Boris Johnson: ‘I will not answer any questions.’ and serves a few cups of tea for the British press’.

One viewer said: ‘I am in love with Boris for bringing out tea to the press.. s*** like that makes me feel proud to be British’. 

His choice of mugs – including a mini egg one given free with an Easter egg – and his scruffy jumper and surf shorts have also been widely lampooned. 

The Muslim Council of Britain says Islamophobic incidents have risen since Mr Johnson compared women in veils to bank robbers and letterboxes.

The organisation is today writing to Mrs May today demanding a full disciplinary inquiry as allies including the former Foreign Secretary’s father and sister said he ‘didn’t go far enough’.  

The MCB’s letter says: ‘We are hopeful that the party will not allow any whitewashing of this specific inquiry currently in process. No one should be allowed to victimise minorities with impunity.’

Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Tell Mama, which measures anti-Muslim incidents, said today that Mr Johnson’s comments will ’embolden mainly male perpetrators to have a go at visible Muslim women as a whole’.

Tell Mama says there have been 14 incidents of abuse of women wearing a niqab or hijab in the past week – up from five.

Mr Mughal said: ‘Johnson thinks his flippant comments were funny and whilst his comments were about the burqa, the fact is that visible Muslim women are also impacted on by these comments. Perpetrators don’t sit around thinking, ‘Oh there is a burqa-clad woman and I will only vent my anger to her’ – they see a visibly identifiable woman and off they go with their bigotry and prejudice.’

Boris Johnson’s father last night accused the Tory leadership of ‘losing its senses’ over the burka row embroiling his son.

As Cabinet ministers lambasted the party’s ‘cack-handed’ approach, Stanley Johnson claimed Conservative chiefs were ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’.

He suggested his son was facing a ‘kangaroo court’ after describing Muslim women in face-covering veils as looking like letter-boxes or bank robbers.

Rachel Johnson has also backed her sibling. 

She wrote: ‘If I’d been phoning it in, as it were, I might have changed the word ‘ridiculous’ and cut out ‘bank robbers’, but apart from these two or three words, it seemed fine and fair – in fact, it didn’t go far enough to express, in my view, how oppressive the garment is.

‘When I see a woman wearing one, I don’t try to ‘other’ her. The reverse. I try to imagine myself in her shoes. On the street. All the rest of my family are in casual shorts and T-shirts and flip-flops, but I’m a faceless, unidentifiable ghost in a suffocating black shroud. 

Boris waved as he and his son Milo leave their Oxfordshire home in their bashed up Toyota

Boris waved as he and his son Milo leave their Oxfordshire home in their bashed up Toyota

Boris' tea run has sparked mixed reactions on Twitter after a clip viewed by millions

Boris’ tea run has sparked mixed reactions on Twitter after a clip viewed by millions

‘On the beach, my man in skimpy Speedos (OK, please no) me in hot dark fabric from head to toe, having to eat an ice cream by posting the pudding into my mouth from under a flap beneath my chin.’

Ms Johnson also called for her brother to ‘go further’ saying she would only apologise for his having not called for an outright ban.

The party’s treatment of the former foreign secretary – who returned to the UK from holiday in Italy yesterday – has fuelled a Tory civil war.

Conservative chairman Brandon Lewis has called on Boris to apologise for his remarks, made in a newspaper column, while the party is considering formal disciplinary action. However, Mr Johnson’s allies believe the ex-London mayor is being targeted because he poses a leadership threat to the Prime Minister.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen last night said grassroots anger could lead to more MPs submitting letters to reach the 48 needed to force a leadership challenge.

He warned: ‘If Boris is suspended it will be open warfare in the Conservative Party. If Theresa May dares engineer a leadership contest while Boris is suspended it will be World War Three.’ 

Yesterday Stanley Johnson told Sky News: ‘The hierarchy of the Tory Party has collectively lost its senses. It is making a mountain out of a molehill’.



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