BORIS JOHNSON has hit out at American attacks on British oil giant BP, saying the company “cannot be faulted” for its efforts to stem the flow of black gold from its broken rig pipe in the Gulf of Mexico.


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“OK, [BP] has presided over a catastrophic accident, which it is trying to remedy,” said Johnson on Radio 4 this morning.

“But ultimately it cannot be faulted because it was an accident that took place and BP, I think, is paying a very, very heavy price indeed.”

With 11 rig-workers dead, the end to the oil spill nowhere in sight and coastal towns in America’s south facing economic ruin, the London mayor’s words are unlikely to find much favour across the Atlantic.

Johnson also pointed to the “anti-British rhetoric permeating from America” in the wake of the disaster, but it is the financial implications to British big business that most concerns the mayor.

US politicians have started legal action to stop BP handing out a dividend to its shareholders until the company has paid for the clean-up operation in full.

Those legal moves worry London’s business community and the British government, because BP shares make up a sizeable portion of many of the UK’s biggest pension funds.

“When you consider the huge exposure of British pension funds to BP and to BP’s share price, and the vital importance of BP, it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great British company is being continually beaten up on the international airwaves,” said Johnson.