Boris Johnson looks ready to get down to business on a visit to a BAE Systems ship-building yard in Glasgow

All immigrants must learn English because there are too many parts of the country where it is not the first language, Boris Johnson said yesterday.

The former mayor of London and Tory leadership favourite praised the “amazing” story of immigration into the UK. Specifically identifying “waves” of people who have come to London including Bangladeshis, Jewish refugees from Tsarist Russia, and French Huguenots, Mr Johnson said that immigrants had “adapted and made their lives and they have helped to make our national culture and they have bought into it”.

However, he complained that too many were failing to integrate. Speaking at a Conservative leadership hustings in Darlington, Mr Johnson said: “I want everybody who comes here and makes their lives here to be and to