Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe has lashed out on Britain claiming it had ‘gone to the dogs’ and people with ‘gay habits’ should be ashamed.

In a BBC interview that aired on Saturday night, the 90-year-old president, added that he felt ‘pity’ for the Queen ‘at the loss of values‘.

‘What has happened to Britain? They have grown small in mind. That wisdom which the likes of Churchill had, where is it? You can’t see it in people now with gay habits – shame on them.’

He went on, ‘I pity the one lady I admire, the Queen, that she is in these circumstances, I’m sure down deep she must be groaning [at] the loss of values in Britain. They’ve gone to the dogs. Countries don’t respect Britain any more. Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the world. Which world? [David] Cameron … doesn’t talk much, but he acts in the same way as [George W] Bush.’

Mugabe, who has been Zimbabwe’s ruler since its independence from Britain in 1984, faces EU sanctions as a result of his authoritarian rule.

Speaking at the Harare stadium to a crowd of thousands to mark the country’s independence on Friday, Mugabe repeated his claims that Europe is trying to force gay rights on Africa.

‘[Europe says] If you pass a law that rejects homosexual marriages we will punish you like they are doing to Uganda and us,’ he said.

‘Let Europe keep their homosexual nonsense there and live with it. We will never have it here. The act [homosexuality] is not humane.’

He also threatened to deport Western diplomats in Zimbabwe against talking about homosexuality.

‘Any diplomat who talks about homosexuality (in Zimbabwe) will be kicked out. There is no excuse and we won’t listen to them.’

He also warned the local gay rights group, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, of recruiting supporters from the country’s colleges and universities, calling the legally-registered group a secret organization that he was not aware of until recently.

In recent years, Mugabe has gone on numerous anti-gay rants from threatening to cut LGBTI people’s heads off to saying that homosexuality ‘destroys nations,’ ‘apart from it being a filthy, filthy disease.’