CHRIS MONCRIEFF has defended Boris Johnson’s latest gaffe, believing that referring to Muslim women as letter boxes and bank robbers is a harmless joke (Echo August 14).

Well try telling that to those who are now having envelopes pushed into their faces by mindless morons. It is no coincidence that race hate crime quadrupled immediately after Johnson’s remarks and that the social media has been awash with racism and burka jokes ever since.

The buffoon has yet again demonstrated his unsuitability for any kind of political office let alone that of Prime Minister.

Let us not forget that he was sacked from his job at The Times for lying, that he gave Iran a reason to double Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s jail sentence by saying she was in the country training journalists when she had claimed she was there on holiday, that he has referred to black children as flag-waving piccaninnies, that he joked about Sirte in Libya being a good resort once the dead bodies had been cleared and that he has made false claims regarding Brexit.

Johnson himself is a joke but regretfully not harmless.

Stephen Warren, Durham