Boris Johnson today said that those complaining of overcrowding in London should ask themselves if they would feel the same if the extra bodies were “white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant babies”.
The Mayor of London challenged people to say what they were “really calling for” when they made their complaints.
Mr Johnson recently complained of xenophobia in the UK debate about immigration on his Far East tour.
Speaking on the BBC London call-in show, the Mayor argued that it was not the UK’s approach to have Chinese-style one-child policies.
Instead he said a larger number of people was needed to sustain a growing economy and help pay for the UK’s ageing population. When it was put to him that people wanted blocks on immigration, he agreed the state should control its frontiers.
But he went on: “How would people feel if the population pressure was caused entirely by white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant babies?
“How would they feel about that...there’s a lack of clarity about that and people need to ask themselves what they really [think].”
Mr Johnson said that the UK needed “a proper conversation” about what the ultimate size of Britain should be.
He went on: “We are now at 62 million... is that too many? If it is too many then by how many would people like that number to be reduced, and how would they like it to be reduced?
“What are they seriously calling for?”
While on his tour Mr Johnson said xenophobia was part of human nature, and that it was up to politicians to make the case for the positive side of immigration.
