By AFP
LONDON: With his gruff demeanour and cutting remarks, Britain's former foreign secretary Boris Johnson was ruffling feathers long before he was appointed to the cabinet two years ago.
Here are some of the most glaring gaffes from Johnson, a former journalist who became mayor of London before being appointed to the cabinet following the Brexit referendum in 2016.
Japanese rugby tackle
During a visit to Tokyo as mayor in October 2015, the tousle-haired Johnson decided to show off his rugby-playing skills to a group of schoolchildren.
Video footage showed the lumbering mayor -- dressed in a white shirt and tie, his sleeves rolled up -- running down the side of a small pitch chased by children.
One particularly brave boy stood his ground only to be floored by the mayor's considerable bulk, sending both parties tumbling to the ground much to the merriment of the gathered press and spectators.
"I'm so sorry, are you okay?" Johnson could be heard asking the boy, who nodded and then shook the mayor's hand.
He later told reporters he "accidentally flattened a 10-year-old".
Erdogan and a goat
Johnson clinched a satirical prize for rude poems about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a limerick involving bestiality.
The prize, announced by The Spectator magazine which Johnson used to edit, was in solidarity with a German comedian facing prosecution for a rude poem.
Johnson's poem described a "young fellow from Ankara" who "sowed his wild oats / With the help of a goat / But he didn't even stop to thankera."
'Part-Kenyan' Obama
Johnson took umbrage at then US president Barack Obama's words of warning about a Brexit vote during a visit to London ahead of the 2016 referendum.
Obama had said that Britain would be at the "back of the queue" for any new trade deal with the United States if it voted to leave the European Union.
Writing in The Sun tabloid, Johnson suggested that Obama had removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office due to anti-British feelings linked to his African heritage.
The ensuing row dominated Obama's visit to London.
"On day one of Obama's administration it was returned, without ceremony, to the British embassy in Washington," Johnson wrote.
"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 added.
Whisky for teetotallers?
During 2017 a visit to a gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship, Johnson landed himself in trouble when he told members about taking "clinky", or bottles of whisky, to India.
Johnson, who was then told that alcohol was against the Sikh religion, made his comments when speaking about whisky exports to India.
Wearing an orange turban, Johnson said whisky exports would get a boost if Britain and India could strike a trade deal.
