NEW Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is now Britain's top diplomat, but the former Mayor of London has a poor track record when it comes to diplomacy.
Here are his top five gaffes on the international stage:
1. IRE OF THE IRISH
Boris Johnson faced the ire of the Irish community in London when he told the New Statesman magazine in 2012 that what made him angry was "lefty crap" like "spending £20,000 on a dinner at the Dorchester for Sinn Fein".
The Mayor was referring to the annual St Patrick’s Day Gala Dinner, a black tie event cancelled by his office in 2009 to save money.
He later apologised telling the Irish Independent: "I am profoundly sorry if I have offended any Irish person. I hope that people will see I was making a point about cost cutting."
The annual St Patrick's day event was self-financing and included guests from various Irish backgrounds including the former Richard Corrigan and Bob Geldof.
Reflecting on the mood of Irish people in London in the wake of the controversy, the Irish Post ran an article with the headline "Boris, your attitude stinks" on its front page.
2. NO ONE'S SMILING BOJO
Boris Johnson was forced to apologise for referring to black people as "piccaninnies" and talking about "watermelon smiles" during his first campaign to become Mayor of London in 2008.
In a column published in the Daily Telegraph in 2002, Johnson mocked former Prime Minister Tony Blair's globetrotting: "What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies," he wrote.
It also mentioned "watermelon smiles."
3. OBAMA DRAMA
During the EU referendum campaign Mr Johnson appeared to suggest US President Barack Obama was anti-British with a loaded comment about his part-Kenyan heritage after the president voiced his open support for the Remain campaign on a visit to Britain.
Writing in The Sun on Obama's decision to remove a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval office Johnson said: “No one was sure whether the President had himself been involved in the decision. Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President's ancestral dislike of the British Empire - of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.”
4. A BORN DIPLOMAT
A trade visit to Israel by Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London had to be cut short for short after he repeatedly criticised calls for a boycott of Israeli goods, describing the campaign as “completely crazy” and promoted by a “few lefty academics” in corduroy jackets pursuing a cause.
Johnson had been expected to meet with a Palestinian youth group, which cancelled its invitation after what it described as his “inaccurate, misinformed and disrespectful remarks” regarding the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
5. HITLER - YES HE WENT THERE
In May the new Foreign Secretary said the European Union was pursuing a similar goal to Hitler in trying to create a powerful superstate,
Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Johnson said European history had seen repeated attempts to rediscover the "golden age of peace and prosperity under the Romans".
"Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods," he added.
In the following days after coming under severe pressure to apologise, Mr Johnson attempted a climb down on the controversial remarks saying the "key point" he was trying to make was the EU was "worryingly antidemocratic" in its current form.
See More: Boris Johnson, Brexit, Featured, Foreign Secretary, Insult
