David Cameron calls Nigeria and
Afghanistan 'fantastically corrupt'
David Cameron has described Nigeria and
Afghanistan as "fantastically corrupt" in a
conversation with the Queen.
The PM was talking about the forthcoming
anti-corruption summit when he made the
comments.
It was not clear whether he knew the
comments were being recorded.
"We've got some leaders of some
fantastically corrupt countries coming to
Britain... Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly
the two most corrupt countries in the
world," Mr Cameron said.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby
intervened to say: "But this particular
president is not corrupt... he's trying very
hard," before Speaker John Bercow said:
"They are coming at their own expense, one
assumes?"
The conversation took place at Buckingham
Palace at an event to mark the Queen's 90th
birthday.
BBC diplomatic correspondent James
Landale described the PM's comments as a
"truthful gaffe", because the two countries
involved were widely perceived as having a
corruption problem.
Afghanistan was ranked at 167, ahead of
only Somalia and North Korea, in
Transparency International's 2015
corruption perception index. Nigeria was at
136.
'Head-on'
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari
won elections last year promising to fight
widespread corruption in Africa's largest oil
producer.
The government will host world and
business leaders at the summit on Thursday
in London, aiming to "galvanise a global
response to tackle corruption".
Speaking ahead of the summit, Mr Cameron
said: "For too long there has been a taboo
about tackling this issue head-on.
"The summit will change that. Together we
will push the fight against corruption to the
top of the international agenda where it
belongs."
Last year Mr Cameron was recorded talking
about Yorkshire people "hating each other"
- and he was previously caught revealing
how the Queen "purred" with pleasure
when he told her the Scottish independence
referendum result.
www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36260193