Sir Alan Duncan, right, a foreign office minister and critic of Boris Johnson, said that there had been concern in the office about the BBC documentary ALAN DAVIDSON/REX FEATURESBoris Johnson has claimed to have no recollection of accusing the French of being “turds” over Brexit while appearing to blame the Foreign Office for the leak. The former foreign secretary was said to have made the comments in a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary that was filmed while he was in office. The Foreign Office asked for the comment to be cut, with a Whitehall memo suggesting it would make Anglo-French relations “awkward”, The Daily Mail reported. The comment was apparently made during filming for the three-part documentary Inside the Foreign Office, which was shown on BBC Two in November last year. Mr Johnson resigned as foreign secretary in protest at Theresa May’s Brexit plan before the documentary was broadcast.

Source: The Times June 28, 2019 11:03 UTC