The controversial Foreign Secretary is on a tour of two Commonwealth nations (Gambia and Ghana) and met with the Gambian leader Adama Barrow yesterday as part of efforts to strengthen the bonds between member nations.

The outspoken Johnson is hard to miss not only for his flamboyant hair-do but also for some of his pronouncements. The former London Mayor has courted trouble in the past for some insults that he directed at foreigners.

Below are six of his most controversial insults as published on bbc.com;

Goat lover

Rule one of diplomatic relations: Don't suggest your counterpart has had sex with a goat.
It looks so simple when written down but something Boris forgot in May this year - when he won a £1,000 poetry prize for this limerick about Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan...
"There was a young fellow from Ankara, Who was a terrific wankerer.
"Till he sowed his wild oats, With the help of a goat, But he didn't even stop to thankera."

Sadistic nurse

Hillary Clinton was in the running to be the next US president. And as Leader of the Free World, she would have been a useful person to have in your corner.
Not known for her sense of humour, it's unlikely she was amused by this description from Boris, back in 2007.
"She's got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital."
 
Ping pong

As sporting superpowers go, look no further than China and table tennis. They've won almost every Olympic gold medal since the sport was included back in 1988.
But Mr Johnson couldn't resist indulging in a spot of "yeah but we invented it" as he closed the Beijing Games in 2008.
He told the world the sport was "invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century. It was. And it was called wiff waff".

Obama not all-American

Campaigning on whether the UK should leave the European Union got very nasty - with many insults flung by both sides.
Boris Johnson was furious when President Obama said he thought Britain should remain in the EU.
His response was to call the president "part-Kenyan" with an "ancestral dislike" of Britain. Johnson, in turn, was accused of racism.

Piccaninnies and watermelons

More accusations of racism, this time from a Telegraph column he wrote in 2002.
He suggested the Queen must love touring the Commonwealth because she's greeted by "cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies" and that in the Congo, Tony Blair would be met with "watermelon smiles".
Both are racist insults for black people - and he apologised for the comments.

Obligatory Hitler reference

Back to the EU again.

During campaigning, he said there was an attempt to create the Roman Empire's united Europe.
"Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically," he said.
It should be pointed out that Boris Johnson is an undeniably clever man who speaks several languages - which means he might be able to insult other nations in their native tongue, instead of English. Or Latin.