Obama slams BP chief

In a US television interview, the US President said that he would have fired Hayward for comments he made in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, which killed 11 people.

Obama took exception to Hayward’s remarks that “he wanted his life back” and that the Gulf was “a big ocean”.

“He wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements.” Obama says.

The attack comes just days after the President criticised BP for launching a multimedia marketing campaign to apologise for the spill, while promising to fix the leak.

Obama said the money used to pay for the campaign should have been spent on the clean-up efforts and on compensating fishermen and small business owners who have lost their jobs because of the spill.