Boris Johnson sides with Nigel Farage on issue of English-speaking NHS workers

London Mayor made remarks, calling the healthcare workers unable to speak English 'completely wrong', during a phone-in question and answer session

Boris Johnson attempted to intervene in the incident (Getty)

Boris Johnson has rubbished the “multi-culti, balkanisation” of London society as a “disastrous” approach that has led to some NHS health workers being unable to speak English.

The Mayor of London remarks follow those made by Ukip leader Nigel Farage yesterday when Mr Farage said that health workers who “cannot speak English properly” should not be employed by the NHS.

Mr Johnson said he “passionately” agreed with a caller regarding the issue of healthcare professionals speaking English during a phone-in questions session on LBC radio.

“It’s a huge wasted opportunity for them and I think everybody in this country – particularly those working in our public services – should speak English.”

“I’m amazed by reports that people cannot make them understood in English to people working in the NHS – to me that is completely wrong,” Mr Johnson added.

The London Mayor, who announced last year he intends to run for parliament in the next general election, went on to say that migrants should learn to speak the language spoken on these lands for “getting on a thousand years.”

He claimed: “I think we went through a long period in Britain having a multi-culti, balkanisation of our society and we thought it was a very good idea to teach kids in their own language in primary school classes in London.

“I think that’s a disastrous approach.”

Mr Johnson, who studied Classics at Oxford University, went on to claim that: “It [English] is not a difficult language… English is unbelievably easy to get the hang of.”

He was careful to say that he did not suggest “punitive” measures for those that did not learn, but stressed it was a “wasted opportunity” for families in “Tower Hamlets or places like that” who did not speak English, despite having lived in the capital for decades.