This is a diplomatic faux pas of huge proportions.
Channel 4 News have obtained incredible footage of David Cameron casually chatting away to the Queen about “some fantastically corrupt countries” coming to London for the 1st international anti-corruption summit.
The event takes place on Thursday and aims to “step up global action to expose, punish and drive out corruption in all walks of life.” Before that, the Prime Minister was at Buckingham Palace at an event to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday.
The UK is hosting the 1st international anti-corruption summit in London this week. Read why https://t.co/gVvEM4rnOP pic.twitter.com/jFPcS1push
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) May 10, 2016
Not realising there was cameras and microphones in the vicinity, Cameron remarked:
“We had a very successful cabinet meeting this morning. We talked about our anti-corruption summit. We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain.
“Nigeria and Afghanistan are possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the House of Commons speaker, John Bercow, were also present. Welby tried to diffuse the conversation by arguing that the current Nigerian head of state, Muhammadu Buhari, wasn’t corrupt, but Bercow butted in: “They are coming at their own expense, one assumes?”
One can only assume what Nigerian and Afghan dignitaries and citizens will make of the comments.
David Cameron is caught on camera telling the Queen that Nigeria and Afghanistan are “fantastically” corrupthttps://t.co/yHjEu7VKDK
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) May 10, 2016
