UK Prime Minister David Cameron has described Nigeria and Afghanistan as “fantastically corrupt” in a conversation with Queen Elizabeth.
The PM was talking about the forthcoming anti-corruption summit when he made the comments.
The BBC reported that it was not clear whether he knew the comments were being recorded.
“We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain… Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world,” Mr Cameron said.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby intervened to say: “But this particular president is not corrupt… he’s trying very hard,” before Speaker John Bercow said: “They are coming at their own expense, one assumes?”
The government will host world and business leaders at the summit on Thursday in London, aiming to “galvanise a global response to tackle corruption”.