Boris Johnson praises Turkey for producing his 'beautiful' and 'very well-functioning' washing machine

On an official visit to Ankara, the Foreign Secretary attempts to rebuild bridges between the two nations

Boris Johnson has praised Turkey for producing his “beautiful” and “very well-functioning” washing machine.

On his first official visit to Ankara, the Foreign Secretary attempted to rebuild bridges and spoke positively of the relationship between the two nations.

In May, Mr Johnson won a £1,000 prize for a limerick about the Turkish President amid a debate about freedom of speech in which he accused him of having sex with a goat.

It went:

“There was a young fellow from Ankara

Who was a terrific wankerer

Till he sowed his wild oats

With the help of a goat

But he didn't even stop to thankera"

Mr Johnson was also accused of deliberately lying to voters over Turkish migration during the EU referendum campaign.

So in what could have been an awkward first visit to Turkey, Mr Johnson, speaking at a news conference alongside Omer Celik, Turkey’s EU affairs minister, emphasised how crucial it was for the two nations to work together after Brexit.

“We are lucky in the United Kingdom to be one of the biggest recipients of Turkish goods,” the former Mayor of London said.

“I am certainly the proud possessor of a beautiful, very well-functioning Turkish washing machine,” he added.

Mr Celik said although his nation respected Britain’s decision to leave the EU he strongly criticised the "anti-Turkish rhetoric" that emerged during the campaign.

"We have to close this ugly parenthesis and look to the future," Celik said.

Mr Celik also hailed Mr Johnson’s Turkish roots and referred to him as an “Ottoman”.

The British Foreign Secretary has family lineage in Turkey and his paternal great-grandfather was born in the town of Kalfat in Anatolia.

Members of his ancestral village have pledged to sacrifice “many sheep” in honour of his visit to Turkey.