Boris Johnson is ruining the EU referendum debate, journalist Paul Mason says

The comments were made on Question Time

Boris Johnson is debasing the EU referendum debate with "ludicrous" arguments, journalist Paul Mason has said.

Mr Mason, a former Channel 4 News and BBC Newsnight editor, said Mr Johnson's approach "shows what a £35,000 a year education at Eton buys you".

He made the comments appearing on the BBC's Question Time programme.

Mr Johnson has commited himself to campaigning to leave the European Union and taken centre stage in the campaign.

He has caused controversy on a number of occasions, however: by suggesting that "part-Kenyan" Barack Obama had an "ancestral dislike" of Britain, and by claiming the EU's aims were similar to those of Adolf Hitler.

The Mayor of London also attracted criticism for inaccurate claims about EU regulations on the sale of bananas.

He said that the fruit could not be sold in bunches of "more than two or three".

"You cannot sell bananas with abnormal curvature of the fingers," he said.

"Why should they tell us? Why should they tell us how powerful our vacuum cleaners should be?

"Why should they tell us how powerful our hairdryers should be?

"This is not a matter for an international, supranational body to dictate to the British people."