BORIS Johnson's Facebook has been flooded with hundreds of anti-Islam hate comments, it has been claimed.

Statements - even those including the tag "#islamophobicandproud" - have inundated the ex-Foreign Secretary's social media page after he likened women wearing burkas to "letterboxes".

Other online comments used terms including "devil worshippers", "invaders" and "lepers", a Sunday Times investigation revealed.

A source told the paper that the politician "totally condemns" the hateful views expressed online.

But many revealed fears Johnson's controversial opinion piece had opened the floodgates, giving the green light for Islamophobic views to be voiced online.

In one particularly hateful comment online, a person wrote on Johnson's official Facebook page: "No Muslims in government, police or army".

Johnson is now being investigated in an internal party probe over the article, where he said a woman covering her face "looked like a bank robber".

It is the job of Facebook to remove offensive posts after administrators of a page report comments. However, Johnson's team appears not to have done so.

Johnson was directed to apologise for his comments over burkas but never did so.

He even refused to backtrack after PM Theresa May piled on the pressure by saying his comments “obviously have offended”.

Allies of Mr Johnson called the demands to apologise "ridiculous" and an attack on free speech.

He was backed by a leading imam, who said in a letter to The Times that face veils pose security risks and subjugate women, and Mr Johnson had not gone far enough.

Comedian and free speech champion Rowan Atkinson also backed Mr Johnson, saying in a letter to The Times: "All jokes about religion cause offence, so it's pointless apologising for them."

It comes after Facebook itself came under fire for failing to delete racist posts and hate speech.

The social media platform has been accused of failing to enforce its hate-speech policies, with almost half the cases flagged for attention mistakenly ignored by moderators.

Facebook’s contracted content reviewers, or moderators, are expected to check around 8,000 posts each day.