Some people are just too stupid to get on in life, Boris Johnson claims sparking row about his 'unpleasant, careless elitism'



London Ma yor said only those with high IQs could rise to the top

I nequality is 'essential for the spirit of envy', Mr Johnson argued

Called for crea tion of new generation of grammar schools to help brightest



Comments came in the third annual Margaret Thatcher Lecture

But Nick Clegg accused Johnson of talking about human beings like 'dogs'



Boris Johnson was today accused of 'unpleasant, careless elitism' after claiming some people were not bright enough to get on in the modern world.

The London Mayor was condemned by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who accused the senior Conservative of talking about human beings like 'dogs'.

Mr Johnson used a speech in tribute to Margaret Thatcher to argue that t ackling economic inequality is ‘futile’ because some people’s IQ is too low for them to compete.

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London Mayor Boris Johnson, pictured on a visit last week, said some people were simply not bright enough to succeed in the modern world

Mr Johnson also hailed what he called the ‘spirit of envy’, and said inequality was ‘essential’ for economic growth.

He called for the creation of a new generation of grammar schools to help the brightest children from poor homes.

He also appeared to echo the fictional film character Gordon Gekko, whose notorious motto was ‘greed is good’, saying that greed was ‘a valuable spur to economic activity’.

But he insisted he did not want the economic recovery to breed a new generation of ‘heartless’ bankers.



Delivering the annual Margaret Thatcher Lecture – staged by the right-wing Centre for Policy Studies think-tank – he insisted the rich had a duty to help the poor and embrace philanthropy.

And he urged the Government to do much more to help bright children from poor homes to get a good education.



It is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16 per cent of our species have an IQ below 85, while about 2 per cent have an IQ above 130' London Mayor Boris Johnson

He called for the reintroduction of John Major’s assisted places scheme, which paid for the brightest poor children to go to public schools – and accused the Tories of hypocrisy for blocking a revival of the grammar school system.



But his most controversial comments came when he said globalisation was intensifying the trend towards inequality.

Mr Johnson said: ‘I am afraid that violent economic centrifuge is operating on human beings who are already very far from equal in raw ability, if not spiritual worth.



‘Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests, it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16 per cent of our species have an IQ below 85, while about 2 per cent have an IQ above 130.



‘The harder you shake the pack, the easier it will be for some cornflakes to get to the top. And for one reason or another – boardroom greed or, as I am assured, the natural and God-given talent of boardroom inhabitants – the income gap between the top cornflakes and the bottom cornflakes is getting wider than ever.



‘I stress I don’t believe that economic equality is possible. Indeed, some measure of inequality is essential for the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Joneses that is, like greed, a valuable spur to economic activity.’

Tribute: Mr Johnson made the comments at the third annual Margaret Thatcher Lecture - staged by the right-wing Centre for Policy Studies think-tank

But Mr Clegg condemned the remarks for writing off whole swathes of people who should be given the change to get on. 'I don’t agree with Boris Johnson on this,' he told his LBC 97.3 radio phone-in.

'Much as he is a funny and engaging guy, I have to say these comments reveal a fairly unpleasant, careless elitism that somehow suggests that we should give up on a whole swath of our fellow citizens.

'These comments reveal a fairly unpleasant, careless elitism that somehow suggests that we should give up on a whole swath of our fellow citizens' Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg

'To talk about us as if we are a breed of dog, a species he called it... I think the danger is if you start taking such a deterministic view of people and start saying they’ve got a number attached to them, in this case an IQ number, somehow they’re not really going to rise to the top of the cornflake packet...

'That is complete anathema to everything I’ve always stood for in politics, which is, yes of course, you shouldn't aspire - and as an old-fashioned Liberal I don’t aspire to a perfectly homogenous society where everyone has the same kind of outcomes but you’ve got to try and do more to instil greater opportunity in society.'

He accused some Tories of trying to relive the 1980s heyday of Margaret Thatcher's premiership. 'It is not 1986, it is 2013. Times have moved on.'

Downing Street refused to be drawn into the row. David Cameron's official spokesman said: 'I don't know whether he has read Boris's speech but what I do know is the PM's view about the importance of equality of opportunity.'



The Mayor of London, along with Prime Minister David Cameron, was educated at Eton College, Berkshire

Mr Johnson, who last week called for the ten biggest taxpayers to be handed knighthoods, acknowledged that growing inequality was creating ‘resentment’.



He said ministers needed to do more to promote social mobility. ‘Though it would be wrong to persecute the rich, and madness to try and stifle wealth creation, and futile to try to stamp out inequality, we should only tolerate this wealth gap on two conditions.



‘One, that we help those who genuinely cannot compete; and, two, that we provide opportunity for those who can.’ Mr Johnson, who served as a shadow education minister under David Cameron, suggested the Tories had been guilty of hypocrisy in ruling out the creation of a new generation of grammar schools.



Educated at Eton with Mr Cameron, the Mayor said: ‘I remember once sitting in a meeting of the Tory shadow education team and listening with mounting disbelief to a conversation in which we all agreed solemnly that it would be political madness to try to bring back the Grammar schools – while I happened to know that most of the people in that room were about to make use, as parents, of some of the most viciously selective schools in the country.’



He acknowledged that Mrs Thatcher had closed many grammar schools, but said that if she was here today he hoped she would find a way ‘to help bright children everywhere to overcome their background’.



In a wide-ranging speech Mr Johnson also called for an end to the ‘madness’ of EU immigration.