Boris Johnson comparison of women who wear burkas to letter boxes has resulted in the Prime Minister along with his party’s chairman demanding an apology.
Theresa May backed calls for her former cabinet member to apologise for his comments about Muslim women who wear burkas, saying he ‘clearly caused offence’.
Chair Brandon Lewis has asked the former foreign secretary to say sorry after he said the full-face veils look ‘ridiculous’.

Theresa May (left) has called on her former foreign secretary (right) to apologise after comments she says ‘clearly caused offence’
The calls come after Labour MPs lined up with Conservatives and Muslims to suggest Mr Johnson’s party wasn’t tackling prejudice sufficiently.
But a source close to Mr Johnson said people should ‘not fall into the trap of shutting down debate on difficult issues’.


Boris Johnson (left) remarked that the burka (right) looked ‘ridiculous’, leading people to call for an apology from the former foreign secretary
‘It is ridiculous that these views are being attacked,’ the source said, adding: ‘If we fail to speak up for liberal values then we are simply yielding ground to reactionaries and extremists.’
Conservative Muslim Forum founder Lord Sheikh told The World at One on BBC’s Radio 4 that Johnson was ‘using Muslims as a springboard’ as he seeks to lead the party.
He called remarks, which appeared in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP’s Daily Telegraph column, were ‘very, very bad taste’ and suggested Johnson had a ‘weird sense of humour’.

Mr Johnson’s column came amid protests in Denmark (pictured) which has introduced a ban on face coverings
His comments followed Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt saying there was a ‘degree of offence’ in the column.
Mr Lewis announced he agreed with Mr Burt in a Tweet calling on the former London mayor to say sorry.
The first Muslim female to sit in a British cabinet, ex-Conservative chairwoman Lady Warsi, called for the party to take disciplinary action if the apology did not materialise.

The Conservative chairman tweeted out a message of solidarity with those who have called for Mr Johnson to apologise
Calling Mr Johnson’s comments ‘offensive and deliberately provocative, but very clever politics’, she said debates about the burka must be ‘serious’ rather than attention-seeking remarks the resonate with certain Tories.
She said her fellow Muslim women are not ‘a convenient political football to be used by old Etonians’.
Labour’s equalities spokeswoman Naz Shah – who in 2016 said comments that resulted in her suspension from the party were anti-Semitic – has called for Theresa May to take action.
She suggested the Mr Johnson take part in ‘training and engagement with the Muslim community’ and accused his party of having ‘an issue with Islamophobia’ while pointing out Theresa May had not responded more than 24 hours after the publication.
Labour’s equalities spokeswoman Naz Shah said Mr Johnson should attend “training and engagement with the Muslim community” and called on Prime Minister Theresa May to respond.
Backbench Tory MP Andrew Bridgen spoke in support of his colleague, saying Mr Johnson had found a ‘light-hearted way’ to raise an important issue.
He suggested to the BBC that the reaction to the column ‘says a lot about internal Conservative Party politics’.
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries said Mr Johnson ‘didn’t go far enough’ and called on the government to apologise.