Boris Johnson says ‘I feel like OJ Simpson’ after struggling to put on a pair of tight gloves

© Geoff Caddick/Pool via REUTERS Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with health worker Wendy Warren during his visit at a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium in Cwmbran, South Wales, Britain February 17, 2021. Geoff Caddick/Pool via REUTERS

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday joked that “I feel like OJ Simpson” after struggling to put on a pair of tight gloves while visiting a COVID-19 vaccination centre.

The prime minister, who has a track record of making controversial remarks, made the comment after struggling for several seconds to put on a pair of tight-fitting rubber gloves.

He was visiting a coronavirus vaccination centre in Cwmbran, South Wales, on Wednesday to see the progress of the vaccine rollout.

The prime minister’s joke appeared to reference the infamous pair of gloves which formed a central part of O. J. Simpson’s murder trial.

Simpson, who was accused of murdering two people including his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson, struggled to don a pair of blood-stained gloves found at the crime scene which the prosecution said belonged to him.

The incident led to Simpson’s attorney Johnnie Cochran making his now famous remark: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

Johnson has a long history of making inflammatory and controversial remarks. As foreign secretary, he said Muslim woman wearing burkas looked like “letter boxes,” recited a colonial-era poem in a Myanmar temple, and angered worshippers in a Sikh temple by talking about alcohol, which some Sikh teachings consider to be forbidden.

In 2016, he won a prize for writing a poem about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan having sex with a goat in the Spectator magazine, which he previously edited. In the same year he was criticised for describing Africa as a country.