Boris Johnson is facing calls to retract an “inaccurate and disparaging” claim about a new type of fake fur that could replace real bear skins as military caps.
In rejecting an offer to substitute real bear fur with fake, the prime minister is likely to be in conflict with his wife, Carrie, an animal-welfare supporter and opponent of hunting.
In a leaked email to a constituent, Mr Johnson claimed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently conducted tests on a fake fur fabric, and that it had “unacceptable rates of water shedding”.
He also repeated an MoD claim that the material also “performed poorly on visual assessment”.
But the chief executive of the company that created the faux bear fur has written to the prime minister pointing out that no MoD official has ever even seen his company’s fabric, saying the test results showed exactly the opposite of Mr Johnson’s claims.
Christopher Sarfati, head of Ecopel, demanded that the prime minister “set the record straight and ask that a retraction be issued”.
The MoD-copyrighted tests, paid for by animal-rights charity Peta, were conducted at a ministry-accredited laboratory.
Peta said the ministry gave permission for the lab to conduct the tests, and in return the scientists had to share their findings with the MoD. The Independent has seen photographs of tests on the two materials, which appear to show identical results – contradicting Mr Johnson’s email.
Mr Sarfati’s letter to the PM states: “The test confirmed that the lined...
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