The former foreign secretary has been branded a "dangerous buffoon" for stating police are "spaffing money up the wall" on investigations
Charities have hit out at bumbling Boris Johnson after he claimed money is being wasted on investigating cases of historic child abuse.
The former foreign secretary said police are “spaffing money up the wall” on childhood abuse investigations.
Children’s charities have hit out at the leading Brexiteer for his insensitive use of language.
Appearing on radio station LBC, he said: "An awful lot of money, an awful lot of police time, now goes into these historic offences and all this malarkey and you know £60 million I saw has been spaffed up the wall on some investigation into historic child abuse and all this kind of thing.
"What on earth is that going to do to protect the public now?
"What the people want is to see officers out on the streets doing what they signed up to do."
The comments comes amid multiple investigations into sexual abuse across the UK. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, which began hearing evidence last year, involves hundreds of people who claim they were abused as children.
Mary Glasgow, chief executive of Children 1st, Scotland’s national children’s charity, described Johnson’s comments as outrageous and irresponsible.
She said: “Child abusers rely on their power, status and a culture of looking the other way to keep children silent about the horrific things that are happening to them. Jimmy Saville and other high-profile abuse cases have shown how society’s willingness to turn a blind eye to abuse devastated the lives of child after child.
“Historic child abuse investigations can stop abuse happening to children, the smallest, most vulnerable members of the public, today. They show both child and adult survivors that if you speak out you will be heard, abusers will be stopped and you can begin to recover and move on with your life.
"For the survivors of child sexual abuse we work with, supporting them to recover from their childhood experiences of trauma, language like 'spaffing money up the wall' is an appalling insult given their often horrific experiences.”
Peter Saunders, founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: "These comments by Johnson epitomise the cultural and practical challenges we all have had in protecting our children.
"To reduce the rape and assault on children to 'malarkey' sums up our, or should I say, our children’s problem?
"The man is a buffoon at the best of times. Comments such as this from a senior politician, a former Foreign Secretary, make him a dangerous buffoon."
