Boris Johnson faces calls to be sacked after he claimed a Libyan city would become the "next Dubai" if they "clear the dead bodies away".

The Foreign Secretary, who visited the war-torn North African nation in August, hailed it as an "incredible country" at a Conservative conference fringe event on Tuesday night.

He described Libya's "bone white sand", "beautiful seas", "brilliant young people" and "real potential" as he remembered his recent trip.

Having earlier used the event to speak of Britain's future trading potential after Brexit, Mr Johnson added: "There's a group of UK business people... wonderful guys who want to invest in Sirte on the coast.

"They have a brilliant vision to turn Sirte... into the next Dubai.


"The only thing they've got to do is clear the dead bodies away and then they'll be there."

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Mr Johnson's risky joke was met by a smattering of laughter from the audience, before the event's chair asked for the next question.

But some of his colleagues were not impressed, with South Cambridgeshire MP Heidi Allen tweeting that the comments were "100% unacceptable from anyone, let alone foreign sec".

She added: "Boris must be sacked for this. He does not represent my party."

Fellow MP Anna Soubry tweeted that Mr Johnson "is embarrassing and PM should sack him".

Sarah Wollaston, Totnes MP, tweeted: "Demeaning jokes about real people murdered in Libya would be crass even from a stand up; appalled to hear this from our Foreign Secretary".

100% unacceptable from anyone, let alone foreign sec. Boris must be sacked for this. He does not represent my party. https://t.co/v2RHlbjlnB — Heidi Allen (@heidiallen75) October 3, 2017

But Mr Johnson hit back, tweeting: "Shame people with no knowledge or understanding of Libya want to play politics with the appallingly dangerous reality in Sirte.

"The reality there is that the clearing of corpses of Daesh fighters has been made much more difficult by IEDs and booby traps.

"That's why Britain is playing a key role in reconstruction and why I have visited Libya twice this year in support."

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Libya's bloody civil war, which has raged since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has left thousands of people dead and seen the rise of extremist groups in the country.

Sirte, on Libya's Mediterranean coast, was recaptured from Islamic State militants last year.

Last Saturday, a video emerged which showed Mr Johnson reciting a colonial poem during a public event in Myanmar before being stopped by an ambassador.