The decades of remarks, uttered in public office, scribbled in columns and penned in novels have returned to dog the Prime Minister, who has been hesitant to apologise when pressed by journalists.

The comments that have come up during the election campaign include remarks accused of displaying of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia, classism and homophobia.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson examines a fish on the campaign trail

Working class men are 'criminal' and 'hopeless' (1995)

During his time as editor of right-wing political magazine the Spectator, he wrote: "The modern British male is useless.

"If he is blue collar, he is likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless, and perhaps claiming to suffer from low self-esteem brought on by unemployment."

Lower income families produce 'unloved' children (1995)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a point on LBC radio

In a 1995 column for The Spectator, he wrote that single mothers were “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate”.

"Families on lower incomes the women have absolutely no choice but to work, often with adverse consequences for family life and society as a whole – in that unloved and undisciplined children are more likely to become hoodies, NEETS, and mug you on the street corner."

In his final column as the editor of the Spectator, Mr Johnson offers his successor some parting advice regarding their female publisher.

"Once the fire is going well, you may find your eyes drifting to the lovely striped chesterfield across the room. Is it the right size, you wonder, for a snooze. . . ?" he wrote.

"You come round in a panic, to find a lustrous pair of black eyes staring down at you. Relax. It's only Kimberly [Quinn, who was then the Spectator's publisher] with some helpful suggestions for boosting circulation."

Rather than listen to her speak, the former journalist advised Matthew D'Ancona to “just pat her on the bottom and send her on her way".

Working women (1995, republished in 2006)

In a compendium of his columns named Have I Got Views For You, in a 1995 column Mr Johnson remarked that British women have been “socially gestapoed into the workplace", which led to them raising “unloved and undisciplined children” more likely to commit crime.

He said children of working mothers are "ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children who in theory will be paying for our pensions".

Mr Johnson, who is also the father to a child through an affair, wrote it was “outrageous that married couples should pay for single mothers’ desire to procreate independently of men”.

Asked in an interview on ITV's This Morning if he understood his past comments were hurtful, Johnson said: "Of course," but added: "But I don't think this is the time to talk about articles that were written a very long time ago."

Tank-topped bumboys (1998)

In a column for The Telegraph, Mr Johnson wrote that the resignation of a Labour minister would lead to the blubbing of "tank-topped bumboys".

He has still not apologised for the remark.

'Appalling agenda' of LGBT education (2000)

In the Spectator, the PM wrote a column on "Labour's appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it."

Labour Party composed of 'gay gangsters' (2006)

Alongside his comments about "tank-topped bumboys", Mr Johnson has backed homophobic comments made by Robert Mugabe.

Backing Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe's homophobic comments about the Labour Party, a column reproduced in Johnson's 2006 collection of essays reads: “[Mugabe] has fatally lost sympathy after he said that New Labour was composed of ‘gay gangsters’ (though, ahem, you could say there was grit of truth in that observation).”

He added that it was “right” that Tories would wish its leadership to “speak up more strongly against…gays in the military”.

Same-sex marriage likened to 'three men and a dog' (2002)

In a 2002 book he said: “If gay marriage was OK… I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.”

'Hooked on grief' over Hillsborough (2004)

Liverpudlians were "hooked on grief" over the Hillsborough disaster, a footballing tragedy where 96 football fans were trampled to death, according to an unsigned leader in the Spectator under his editorship.

But Mr Johnson called the disaster a tragedy partly caused by "drunken fans".

Responding to the comments, Mr Johnson, who had initially defended himself, said: "I think the article was too trenchantly expressed but we were trying to make a point about sentimentality. It's a kick in the pants for me."

'Picaninnies' and 'watermelon smiles' (20002)

In a Telegraph article headlined 'If Blair's so good at running the Congo, let him stay there,' Johnson wrote two of the most infamous comments in his career.

"What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England," he wrote.

"It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies."

He continued: "They say he is shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and their tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down his big white British taxpayer-funded bird."

The remarks were later published in Have I Got Views For You, a collection of Johnson’s writing published in 2006.

Antisemitism, the n-word, misogyny (2004)

During his time as shadow arts minister, Boris Johnson wrote the novel Seventy Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors, using the n word and racial stereotypes in passages.

In the text, he refers to Jewish oligarchs controlling the media, mentions “hook nosed” Arabs, refers to a “half-caste” person, and even describes a woman as “a mega-titted six-footer".

In one inflammatory passage, he writes: “The parkie considered. Many traffic wardens are traumatized by the verbals, as they are called, COON, NIGGER, MONKEY, APE.

“Those were some of the names Eric had been called, shorn of their participial expletives.”

Further down the passage, he continues: “Faced with such disgusting behaviour, some traffic wardens respond with a merciless taciturnity. The louder the rant of the traffic offenders, the more acute are the wardens’ feelings of pleasure that they, the stakeless, the outcasts, the n****ers, are a valued part of the empire of law, and in a position to chastise the arrogance and selfishness of the indigenous people.”

Women have a 'natural desire' to get pregnant (1995)

Mr Johnson also wrote that “uppity and irresponsible women” had a “natural desire” to get pregnant.

In a 1995 column, he said that “women’s desire to be married” must be restored by “addressing the feebleness of the modern Briton, his reluctance or inability to take control of his woman and be head of a household.”

He added that there is a limited “marriageable pool” of men willing to “take control of his woman”.

He wrote that by increasing number of female graduates paired up with male graduates – “assortative mating” – it would mean they could pool their advantages.

That one solution to intelligent women being “less likely to get married” would be to have “plot lines in soap operas, in which double-first girls regularly marry illiterate brickies.”

Nigerian 'interest in money' (1999)

The prime minister wrote that young people “have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds” in October 1999, while editor of The Spectator magazine.

"All the young people I know – ie those under 30 – are just as avaricious as we flinty Thatcherite yuppies of the 1980s - in fact, they have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds," the comment reads.

Islamophobia (2007-2018)

In an essay written for a book on Roman history, Mr Johnson wrote that Islam has caused the Muslim world to be “literally centuries behind” the west.

In 2018, he compared Muslim women to "bank robbers" and "letterboxes," and said he would ask a person with a niqab to remove it before speaking to him.

Met Officers

In 1999, Mr Johnson wrote a column deriding the Macpherson report, which found there was systemic racism in the police force.

He retorted that officers were too busy on “racial awareness programmes” to respond to crime reports, and decried the police's attempts to find those guilty of carrying out historic acts of sexual assault and abuse.

The quote reads that police were “stuck on racial awareness programmes; or deployed in desperate attempts to catch paedophiles in ancient public schools; or lurking in lay-bys in the hope of penalising a motorist; or perhaps preparing for the great moment when they will be able to arrest anyone who allows his dogs to chase rabbits, let alone those who go foxhunting.”

On voting Conservative

During the Conservatives' 2005 election bid, Mr Johnson said that "Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3."

'Spaffed' child abuse investigations (2019)

Boris Johnson declared money spent on non-recent child abuse investigations as “spaffed up a wall” during an LBC phone-in in March.

Has he apologised?

No.

When asked to comment on the stream of offensive statements during a Question Time election debate special, the Conservative leader said: “If you go through all my articles with a fine-tooth comb and pick out individual phrases, there’s no doubt that you can take out things that can be made to seemoffensive."

Boris Johnson's 17 most controversial quotes: Why he isn't saying sorry in election campaign