Boris Johnson tells a joke about immigration, ends with a 'forced sterilisation' punchline

The Mayor of London had this to say about people worried about increasing numbers of overseas workers heading for the UK

Jenn Selby
Tuesday 16 December 2014 18:11 GMT
Comments

Boris Johnson is known for his quips and humour, his larks and his jest.

And this time, the subjects of his mild amusement were those concerned by Britain’s rising population.

The Mayor of London said that people worried about increasing numbers of immigrants supposedly heading for the UK (or, as Nigel Farage attempted to envisage last week, clogging up the M4) were prejudiced.

So much so, he joked, they were just the sorts of people who would support “forced sterilisation or a one-baby policy”.

“How would people feel if the population pressure was caused entirely by white, Anglo-Saxon protestant babies?” he questioned, in response to one call to BBC London today from a listener asking about the mounting pressures on ambulances and other public services.

Johnson added that immigration was healthy for a growing economy, and said that while he understood why some citizens harbour certain views, that reducing the number of overseas workers was not necessary.

Russia, he highlighted as an example, boasts a “stable population” but is, according to him, “a chaotic and nasty place to be”.

However, he went on to admit that a state “should be able to control its frontiers”.

“I am perfectly prepared to accept that we need proper controls at our borders, and we haven’t had those controls,” he said.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in