Watch: UK PM Boris Johnson’s Kashmir gaffe in response to Punjab question

In a major blooper, British PM Boris Johnson appeared to confuse the ongoing farmer protests in Delhi with the Kashmir issue and confounded his colleagues with the suggestion that “these are pre-eminently matters for those two governments to settle”.

Johnson’s remark, which left MPs and commentators in the UK and beyond baffled, came in response to a question from Sikh Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi on whether he would convey to PM Narendra Modi “our heartfelt anxieties, our hopes for a speedy resolution to the current deadlock, and does he agree that everyone has a fundamental right to peaceful protest?”

Johnson replied, “Of course. Our view is that, as the right honourable gentleman knows well, of course, we have serious concerns about what is happening between India and Pakistan.”

The UK Foreign Office later said that it is closely following the protests by farmers in India as it clarified that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had “clearly misheard” the question in Parliament when he responded with Britain’s stance on the India-Pakistan dispute instead.