“Creepiest person in politics:” Tony Abbott’s disturbing joke at UK Brexit speech
Former Prime Minister Tony Aboott has made a strange joke where he said he would be “happy to meet” 72 virgins in an overall bizarre speech on Brexit in the UK.
The politician during his speech, urged the British government to deliver Brexit.
The MP’s remark came when he was asked a question from the audience about a novel the current British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in 2004 called Seventy Two Virgins.
“I too am a keen student of Mr Johnson, I’m not sure if you’ve read Seventy Two Virgins as well as his book on Churchill?” the man asked.
“No, but I’d be happy to meet them though,” Mr Abbott replied laughing.
“If you knew where you do meet 72 virgins, I don’t think you’d be so keen on that,” the questioner responded.
“You obviously have more intelligence over these things than I do,” Mr Abbott then said.
The novel by the British Prime Minister is about an MP’s bid to halt a suicide bomber from attmepting to assisinate the US President in London.
The title is related to the highly-contentious idea that Muslim suicide bombers believe they will recieve 72 virgins for themselves if they sacrifice their own lives as martyrs for their faith.
Critics took to social media to question the bizarre remarks made by the former MP, with one man labelling Mr Abbott as "the creepiest person in politics."
"So Tony wanted to make a serious speech about Brexit. Unfortunately, this isn’t it," another comment read.
One person wrote: "Deeply deeply weird, wasn't it!"
However a number of people came to Mr Abbott's defence, with one writing: "Sensitive twitter is back again. Why are we so offended at a harmless joke?"
Another added "Another great night for the perpetually offended."
This wasn’t the only bizarre moment during the speech however, when Mr Abbott also used a bible reference to suggest Remainers would fail in a bid to sabotage Brexit.
“As the scripture says: ‘He who puts his hand to the plough and then turns back is not worthy of the Kingdom’,” he said about those challenging Brexit.
He also said they “will fail though, because in the end there won't be enough of them to usurp a democratic vote, to sacrifice their country for short-term political gain and to put Europe before Britain”.