With Theresa May's departure from Number 10 now imminent, Boris Johnson is inexplicably the bookies' favourite to be the next Prime Minister.

One of the most recognisable faces of the Tory party and a leading Leave campaign figure, Boris has become a household name – and not just because of his trademark hair.

The bumbling blonde Brexiteer has repeatedly shown himself unfit for high office, with a string of offensive remarks and errors of judgement.

Here's a round up of his worst moments.

1. When he referred to black people as 'piccanninnies' with 'watermelon smiles'

When writing about Tony Blair 's trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002, Boris Johnson said the Queen loved the Commonwealth "partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies".

He said Tony Blair would be "similarly seduced by foreign politeness", and "the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles".

2. When he compared Muslim women wearing veils to 'bank robbers' and 'letter boxes'

Branding the religious symbol "oppressive" in an August column in the Telegraph, he claimed: "It is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes."

Any female student who turned up to school "looking like a bank robber" should be asked to remove their face covering, he then added.

3. When he used racist terms to describe Barack Obama

Annoyed at the then US president wading into the Brexit debate, Johnson described Obama as a 'part-Kenyan' with an 'ancestral dislike' of Britain.

4. When he said Libya would be great once they've 'cleared away the dead bodies'

At the Conservative Party conference Mr Johnson was widely condemned after he said the Libyan city of Sirte would have a

Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said Mr Johnson's "crass, callous and cruel" joke was a "disgrace".

5. When he recited a colonial-era poem in Myanmar

Johnson was told off by the British ambassador to Myanmar when he recited the opening verse to Rudyard Kipling's The Road to Mandalay when he visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred Buddhist site in Myanmar's capital, Yangon.

Kipling’s poem captures the nostalgia of a retired serviceman looking back on his colonial service and a Burmese girl he kissed.

The ambassador, Andrew Patrick, said between gritted teeth "probably not a good idea" and continues "not appropriate".

6. When he risked a British mum facing a longer sentence in an Iranian prison

The Foreign Secretary incorrectly said a British mum, who is being held in a Tehran prison, was training journalists when she was arrested in Iran.

His incorrect comments sparked fears the mother-of-one could face a longer jail sentence.

7. When he insulted the entire city of Liverpool

In a 2004 column for the Spectator, Johnson wrote that the Hillsborough disaster “undeniably” a tragedy, but continued: “That is no excuse for Liverpool’s failure to acknowledge, even to this day, the part played in the disaster by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground that Saturday afternoon.”

He continued: “The police became a convenient scapegoat, and The Sun newspaper a whipping-boy for daring, albeit in a tasteless fashion, to hint at the wider causes of the incident.”

Talking about the attitudes of Liverpudlians, he added: “They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it.”

Mr Johnson travelled to Liverpool to apologise for the article in 2004, but his apology was rejected by Hillsborough Family Support Group chairman Margaret Aspinall.

8. The time he claimed to have voted when he hadn't

On the day of this month’s local elections he published – and quickly deleted – a tweet claiming to have voted Conservative, and urging his followers to do so too.

Johnson, who lives with his partner in central London, represents the west London constituency of Uxbridge and West Ruislip.

Local elections did not take place in London this year.

9. When he talked about whisky in a Sikh temple

The Foreign Secretary was berated in Bristol at a Sikh temple for talking about increasing whisky exports to India – despite alcohol being forbidden in the Sikh faith.

A voter was described as "absolutely livid" after telling the gaffe-prone Tory, who was wearing an orange turban, that it was against Sikhism.

The woman reportedly told Mr Johnson: "How dare you talk about alcohol in a Sikh temple?"

10. When he wrote a poem about the Turkish President having sex with a goat

Mr Johnson, who has a Turkish grandfather, wrote an offensive poem about Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing him of having sex with a goat.

When he met the Turkish President, he was asked by journalists at a press conference if he would like to apologise calling President Erdogan a ‘wankerer’.

Boris replied that such ‘trivia’ had not been raised during his visit.

11. When he compared the EU's aims for a superstate to those of Hitler

During the EU referendum campaign Johnson said both the Nazi leader and Napoleon had failed at unification and the EU was "an attempt to do this by different methods".

Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, said the comparison was "offensive and desperate".

12. When he claimed table tennis was an English invention…in China

In Beijing for the Olympic Games, Johnson said ping pong or table tennis was “invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century. It was. And it was called wiff waff.”

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