Boris Johnson compared niqab-wearing women to 'letter boxes' and 'bank robbers'

No one needs yet another reminder why Boris Johnson should never have been let near international diplomacy, but he's happily coughed one up anyway.

The former foreign secretary has come under fire for comparing Muslim women in burqas to "letter boxes" and "bank robbers".

Labour has demanded Theresa May condemn "this blatant Islamaphobia", which Johnson expressed in an article for the Daily Telegraph.

Arguing it was wrong for Denmark to impose fines on those wearing a burka or niqab in the streets, he said:

I would go further and say it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes.

He also said that he would expect constituents to remove face coverings when talking to him at his MP's surgery:

If a female student turned up at school or at a university lecturer looking like a bank robber then ditto: those in authority should be allowed to converse openly with those that they are being asked to instruct.

Labour MP David Lammy called Johnson a "pound-shop Donald Trump" in light of the remarks:

Muslim women are having their burkas pulled off by thugs in our streets and Boris Johnson’s response is to mock them for ‘looking like letter boxes’.

Our pound-shop Donald Trump is fanning the flames of Islamophobia to propel his grubby electoral ambitions.

The internet was disturbed by the Islamophobic comments.

The comments were eerily reminiscent of beliefs held by US right-winger and former Trump aide Steve Bannon, who Johnson appears to be in regular contact with.

People picked out some other pressing problems too.

More: Which countries has Boris Johnson offended as Foreign Secretary?