Boris Johnson said it would be "utterly outrageous" for a Scottish person to become prime minister.

The frontrunner to be Britain's next prime minister wrote in 2005 that "government by a Scot is just not conceivable."

Johnson also authorised publication of a jocular poem describing Scottish people as vermin who should be exterminated.

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LONDON — Boris Johnson once called for Scottish people to be blocked from becoming prime minister because "government by a Scot is just not conceivable."

Johnson, the strong favourite to be Britain's next prime minister, also authorised publication of a poem describing Scottish people as vermin who should be exterminated.

Writing in the Spectator in 2005, Johnson said that it would be "utterly outrageous" if the then Chancellor Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister on the grounds that he is Scottish.

"The Labour machine will try, at some point in the next few years, to insert Gordon Brown," Johnson wrote, in comments unearthed by the Scotsman newspaper on Monday.

"That would be utterly outrageous, not just because he is a gloomadon-popping, interfering, high-taxing complicator of life, but mainly because he is a Scot, and government by a Scot is just not conceivable in the current constitutional context."

Johnson claimed that Brown was "not really interested in British values" but instead in "his personal political disability as a Scottish MP."

Read more: Boris Johnson published a poem joking about the 'extermination' of the 'verminous' Scottish people



He went on to argue that Scottish MPs were, at the time, able to vote on legislation that only affects people living in England made English people "roar with anger."

It is not the only time that Johnson has been attacked for anti-Scottish sentiment. Last week Business Insider revealed that when Johnson edited the Spectator, he authorised the publication of a jocular poem describing Scottish people as vermin who should face "extermination."

Read more: Boris Johnson's long record of sexist, homophobic, and racist comments

The poem, which has since been removed from the magazine's archive, was written by then staffer James Michie.

It described Scots as "tartan dwarves" who were "polluting our stock" and suggested that the country should be turned into a "ghetto" with the inhabitants submitted for "extermination."

Reacting to the poem at the time, Maureen Fraser, director of the Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland, described it as "very offensive and the language is deeply inflammatory."

She added: "Some of the language, such as 'comprehensive extermination' and 'polluting our stock', is completely and utterly unacceptable. It cannot be tolerated.''

A spokesperson for Johnson was contacted for comment.