Boris Johnson apologises to London Irish community

Mayor says his comments in the New Statesman were exploited to suggest he had anti-Irish fe

Boris Johnson, no stranger to gaffes, is well-practiced in the art of laughing off any offence caused. However, the mayor’s buffoon act did not deflect his comments about London Irish community in last month’s New Statesman, and he has now apologised.

Interviewed by Jemima Khan, Johnson made this throwaway remark:

“I’ll tell you what makes me angry — lefty crap,” he thunders in response. Like? “Well, like spending £20,000 on a dinner at the Dorchester for Sinn Fein!”

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As my colleague Mehdi Hasan pointed out, this was not founded in fact:

Is the mayor referring to the annual St Patrick’s Day Gala Dinner, the £150-per-ticket black tie event that ran between 2002 and 2008 and was, ahem, self-financing? The dinner that Boris cancelled in 2009 to save money despite the fact that it was, um, er, self-financing? The dinner that wasn’t held “for Sinn Fein” but at the request, and for the sake, of the Irish community of Kilburn, Cricklewood and other parts of the capital?

The remarks triggered a strong reaction among the Irish community. The front page of the Irish Post proclaimed “Boris: your attitude stinks”.

Now, a month later and struggling to get ahead in the polls, Johnson has apologised for any offence caused. He told the Irish Independent: “I am profoundly sorry if I have offended any Irish person.” He added: “I hope that people will see I was making a point about cost cutting.”

The mayor’s office has also released a letter send to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith to clarify his position. In it, he says that his comments were exploited to suggest he had anti-Irish feelings, saying that this was “deeply upsetting”. In a rather non-apologetic apology, he said:

Although I note that the guests of honour at the 2008 St Patrick’s Day dinner were Martin McGuinness and Pat Doherty, these were not dinners for Sinn Fein and, of course, I make absolutely no assumptions about the political allegiances of those who attended the dinners.

He makes no mention of the fact that the dinner included Irish public figures from across the spectrum, with a guestlist including Bob Geldof, Dermot O’Leary, the mayor of Dublin and the Irish ambassador to the UK.

In a classic Johnson move, he emphasised his apology for the “unintended offence that I may have given” with the gag: “Mayoral culpa, mayoral maxima culpa.” One wonders whether this will be enough to undo the damage done by his reiteration of the old stereotype that all Irish people are Provos.