British
Prime Minister, David Cameron, was caught on camera telling Queen Elizabeth on
Tuesday that leaders of some “fantastically corrupt” countries, including
Nigeria and Afghanistan, were due to attend his anti-corruption summit.
Cameron will host an international
anti-corruption summit on Thursday aimed at stepping up global action to combat
corruption in all walks of life.
In a pooled video feed made available to
the ITN broadcaster, Cameron was shown talking with the queen about the summit.
“We had a very successful cabinet meeting
this morning, talking about our anti-corruption summit,” Cameron said when the
queen approached. “We have got the Nigerians – actually we have got some
leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain.”
“Nigeria
and Afghanistan – possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world.”
The
queen did not respond to Cameron’s comment, but the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Justin Welby said: “But this particular president is actually not corrupt.”
Nigeria’s
President, Muhammadu Buhari and Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, both of whom
are due to attend the summit, acknowledged corruption in their countries and
have pledged to clean it up, Reuters reported.
Afghanistan
is at number 166, second-from-bottom, in campaign group Transparency
International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index, an annual ranking of
countries.
Only
North Korea and Somalia, jointly ranked at number 167, are perceived to be more
corrupt. Nigeria is at number 136 in the index.
It was
not clear whether Cameron realised he was being filmed and recorded at the
event at Buckingham Palace, Reuters added.
A
bystander then joked to laughter: “They are coming at their own expense one
assumes?”
“Everything
has to be open,” Cameron said. “There are no sort of closed-door sessions.
Everything has to be in front of the press. It’s going to be. It could be quite
interesting.”
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