British foreign secretary Boris Johnson is facing calls for his removal after saying a Libyan city could become the next Dubai once it had cleared the dead bodies away.
Boris Johnson, who has offended some allies with flippant remarks, told Conservative Party members on Tuesday that the Libyan city of Sirte could be turned into the next Dubai by British investors.
“They’ve got a brilliant vision to turn Sirte, with the help of the municipality of Sirte, to turn it into the next Dubai,” Johnson said.
“The only thing they’ve got to do is clear the dead bodies away and then we will be there.”
Some MPs said the Foreign Secretary’s comments were unacceptable, calling for his sack.
The opposition Labour Party’s spokeswoman for foreign affairs, Emily Thornberry, said Johnson’s joke was shameful and questioned whether May would take any action to reprimand him.
British Foreign Sec says we just need to clear away the dead bodies to create a resort in Libya. Shameful. What will the PM do about this? https://t.co/OntocFfpxg
— Emily Thornberry (@EmilyThornberry) October 3, 2017
Boris Johnson has taken to social media to defend his comments.
Shame people with no knowledge or understanding of Libya want to play politics with the appallingly dangerous reality in Sirte
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) October 3, 2017
The reality there is that the clearing of corpses of Daesh fighters has been made much more difficult by IEDs and booby traps
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) October 3, 2017
That's why Britain is playing a key role in reconstruction and why I have visited Libya twice this year in support
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) October 3, 2017
Britain and France took a leading role in the attacks that helped rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country has since descended into chaos, with thousands of casualties.
