Boris Johnson’s election as British Prime Minister will wreak havoc on Irish society, according to a former senior politician.

Writing exclusively in this edition of Metro Éireann, Michael McGowan, who was an MEP for several years and president of the development committee of the European Parliament, adds that the new Prime Minister is also a threat to the existence of the EU.

“The new government of the UK with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister is not good news for the people of Ireland. It is a serious threat to both the Good Friday Agreement and the European Union itself,” he writes.

According to McGowan, Johnson is completely unconcerned about Ireland and the Irish border: “When he was foreign secretary, Johnson compared negotiations about the Irish border to ‘the tail wagging the dog’.

“The decision of the UK to leave the EU is the biggest threat to peace in Ireland since the Troubles, and more widely undermines the influence of the EU’s role in peacekeeping.”

Michael McGowan is not the first to highlight the dangers posed by Britain’s gaffe-prone new Prime Minister, who has also been accused of racism.

In 2008, when it was reported that anti-Muslim hate crimes were on the rise, Johnson responded by saying Muslim women who wear the niqab looked like “bank robbers” and “letter boxes”.

Tell Mama, a British watchdog which records hate crimes, said Islamophobic attacks on Muslim women who wear veils rose following the latter statement.

Johnson has also been condemned for using racist language like “watermelon smiles” and “piccaninnies” when referring to the people of Africa.