London is great for mango juice, says Boris

9:21am Saturday 15th December 2007

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Gaffe-prone Tory mayoral candidate Boris Johnson has said the best thing about London is being able to buy mango juice and mange tout.

Johnson, 43, was speaking at a breakfast meeting of the London Jewish Forum when he was asked how the capital has improved since his childhood.

Addressing 60 community leaders at the Montcalm Hotel, he said: "Mobile telephones, the internet . . . no, the whole country has those."

When someone from the audience yelled "restaurants", Johnson replied: "Yes, you eat well. Thank you. Who would have dreamt you could go into Tesco and buy mange tout, or your newsagent for mango juice?"

Johnson has frequently embarrassed his party in the past.

In October 2004, The Spectator magazine under his editorship carried an editorial claiming residents of Liverpool were wallowing "vicarious victimhood" in the wake of the execution in Iraq of Liverpudlian Kenneth Bigley.

It was also suggested that Liverpudlians had refused to accept responsibility for their part in the 1989 Hillsborough football disaster.

He was ordered by then party leader Michael Howard to make a tour of the city as an apology for the insult.

In a column for GQ in April, Mr Johnson upset MPs for Portsmouth after he claimed it was one of the most depressed towns in south England and full of drugs.