U.K.’s Boris Johnson’s latest blunder overshadows his Brexit challenge

LONDON – Another mistake by gaffe-prone Boris Johnson is tarnishing the U.K. foreign secretary’s latest challenge to Prime Minister Theresa May.

During a January visit to Myanmar’s holiest Buddhist site, he began to recite a colonial-era poem before being cut off mid-sentence by the British ambassador. “You’re on mic. Probably not a good idea,” he was told. Johnson responded: “What, ‘The Road to Mandalay?’” The answer: “No. Not appropriate.” The poem by Rudyard Kipling is nostalgic about Britain’s colonial past in Burma.

The moment was captured by a television crew.

In a way, the timing couldn’t be better for May as she tries to get her errant foreign secretary to stop freelancing on Brexit. Johnson has now twice undermined her strategy in key moments, first before her major speech in Florence, and again Friday by listing for the Sun newspaper his four red lines on Brexit.