The Conservative Party finalists have refused to call Donald Trump’s tweets ‘racist’ (Pictures: PA/EPA)

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt have both refused to condemn Donald Trump’s offensive remarks about four US congresswomen as ‘racist’.

The former and current foreign secretaries went head-to-head in their final debate before the Conservative Party decides who will be next in Number 10.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted that he thought four US congresswomen should ‘go back’ to the ‘broken and crime infested places from which they came’.

The Tory leadership rivals both said they agreed with Theresa May’s condemnation of the remarks made by the US president on Twitter as ‘completely unacceptable’.


While Mr Trump did not name the four, he is believed to have been referring to congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt went to head-to-head in their final debate before the Conservative Party decides who will be next in Number 10 (Picture: PA)

All were born in the United States, except Ms Omar who was born in Somalia and came to the US as a refugee.



Asked about the comments Mr Johnson said: ‘If you are the leader of a great multiracial, multicultural society you simply cannot use that kind of language about sending people back to where they came from.

‘That went out decades and decades ago and thank heavens for that so it’s totally unacceptable and I agree with the Prime Minister.’

Pressed on whether the comments were racist, he said: ‘I simply can’t understand how a leader of that country can come to say it.’

Pressed again, he replied: ‘You can take from what I said what I think about President Trump’s words.’

Mr Hunt said the remarks were ‘totally offensive’, but challenged on whether the remarks are racist, he said it would not be helpful to use such language about the US president.

Trump tweeted that he thought four US congresswomen should ‘go back’ to the ‘broken and crime infested places from which they came’ (Picture: PA)

It is thought he was referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib who were all born in the US (Picture: AP)

Mr Hunt said: ‘I have three half-Chinese children, and they are British citizens born on the NHS, and if anyone ever said to them “go back to China”, I would be utterly appalled.’

He added: ‘I think that, look I’m Foreign Secretary, this is a president of a country which happens to be our closest ally and so it is not going to help the situation to use that kind of language about the president of the United States.

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‘I can understand how many people in this country would want politicians like me to use those words and would feel that sentiment but I will make absolutely clear how totally offensive it is to me that people are still saying that kind of thing.’

Trump had hit out at the congresswomen ‘who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world’.

He then suggested: ‘why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came’.

Ilhan Omar came as a refugee to the United States as a refugee (Picture: AP)

His comments led to attacks from senior Democrats, with presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren condemning the ‘racist and xenophobic attack’.

Despite the widespread outrage provoked by his tweets, the president seemed unbothered.

Speaking at the White House on Monday he said: ‘If you’re not happy in the US, if you’re complaining all the time, you can leave, you can leave right now.’



He then defended tweet, saying the anger it prompted ‘doesn’t concern me, because many people agree with me.’

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