Boris Johnson accused of racism over Barack Obama remarks

London mayor Boris Johnson has been accused of "dog-whistle" racism after he suggested that Barack Obama's Kenyan ancestry may have been behind the decision to remove a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office after he became president.

Mr Johnson, who is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, wrote the comments in the Sun newspaper yesterday as the US president visited London urging Britain to remain in the EU.

Mr Johnson said nobody was sure if the US president was directly involved in the decision to return the bust of the former British prime minister, which was on loan from the British embassy in Washington during George W Bush’s presidency.

“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,” he wrote.

Ugly face

Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell accused Mr Johnson of “dog-whistle racism” and

Labour

MP Chuka Umunna described the remark as base politics of the worst kind.

"Once again we see the ugly face of the Tory party," Mr Umunna said.

Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan, insisted yesterday that he "loved" Churchill, pointing out that a second bust of the wartime prime minister remained outside his private office at the White House.

Speaking during a joint press conference with David Cameron, the president said he had replaced the bust in the Oval Office with one of Martin Luther King.

“There are only so many tables where you can put busts,” he said.