Former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson faces an investigation by an independent panel over complaints that he violated the ruling Conservative Party's code of conduct when he wrote in a newspaper column last week that women in burqas resemble "bank robbers" and "letter boxes".
Johnson resigned as Britain's top diplomat a month ago after claiming that Prime Minister Theresa May's proposals for a soft exit from the European Union were killing the dream of clear, decisive split from the bloc.
Johnson remains a backbench member of Parliament and contender to replace May in a future contest for power. After quitting his Cabinet post, the flamboyant former London mayor took up his pen as a paid opinion writer for the Daily Telegraph.
His most recent column noted his opposition to a new ban on face veils in Denmark but veered away to critique traditional Islamic garb, calling niqabs and burqas "oppressive and ridiculous". Johnson asserted that schools should be entitled to tell students to remove a veil if one "turns up ... looking like a bank robber". "It is absolutely ridiculous," he wrote, "that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes; and I thoroughly dislike any attempt by any - invariably male - government to encourage such demonstrations of 'modesty'."
The Boris Burqa Brawl quickly ensued on social media.
