Tory MP calls for Boris Johnson to be fired after his Libya 'dead bodies' comment
Remarks '100 per cent unacceptable from anyone, let alone Foreign Secretary'
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson should be fired for saying that a Libyan city could become the new Dubai once "they clear the dead bodies away", a Conservative MP has said.
The remarks were "100 per cent unacceptable from anyone, let alone Foreign Secretary", Heidi Allen tweeted. "Boris must be sacked for this. He does not represent my party."
The Member of Parliament for South Cambridgeshire was backed by Anna Soubry, the Tory MP for Broxtowe, who said the foreign secretary was "embarassng".
Mr Johnson made the comments at a global trade fringe event of the Conservative Party conference.
He said Libya had "real potential and brilliant young people who want to do all sorts of tech".
He added: “There's a group of UK business people actually, I don't know whether you will have come across this, wonderful guys, who want to invest in Sirte on the coast, near where Gaddafi was actually captured and executed, as some of you may have seen.
“They have a got brilliant vision to turn Sirte, with the help of the municipality of Sirte, into the next Dubai. The only thing they’ve got to do is clear the dead bodies.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry condemned the comments as “unbelievably crass, callous and cruel”. Thousands of civilians and hundreds of government soldiers were killed when Sirte was captured from Isis less than a year ago.
She said: “For Boris Johnson to treat those deaths as a joke – a mere inconvenience before UK business people can turn the city into a beach resort – is unbelievably crass, callous and cruel.
“If these words came from the business people themselves, it would be considered offensive enough, but for them to come from the Foreign Secretary is simply a disgrace.
“There comes a time when buffoonery needs to stop, because if Boris Johnson thinks the bodies of those brave government soldiers and innocent civilians killed in Sirte are a suitable subject for throwaway humour, he does not belong in the office of Foreign Secretary.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson said the “unbelievably crass and insensitive comment” was proof Mr Johnson was “not up” to a role involving diplomacy.
She added: “May needs to get her house in order and sack him.”
It is not the first time Ms Allen has spoken against the party leadership. The Cambridge MP, who sits on the Work and Pensions Select Committee, led a back bench rebellion against the roll-out of the Government's flagship Universal Credit welfare reform programme.
Ms Allen has repeatedly criticised spending cuts since her election in 2015 and criticised the public sector wage cap.
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