“The investment we’re seeing in Canary Wharf, the Olympic village, developments across the city are being financed by Middle Eastern investment in such a way as to allow us to build homes for ordinary Londoners and meet the single biggest economic problem that our city has.”

London is also seeking to become a global hub for the world’s Islamic finance industry in a bid to attract greater amount of investment from the Muslim world.

Mr Johnson said that he remained “the last and only politician in Britain to think that immigration is a positive thing for our economy”, citing that four in every 10 Londoners were born abroad.

The Mayor also attacked the Labour Party for using London and the South East as a “milch cow” to redistribute wealth to other parts of the UK, such as Scotland, in a bid to win votes.

“Raiding one part of the country to spend it in another breeds a spirit of separatism,” said Mr Johnson.

“A united kingdom is a stronger country and some of the language Labour is using will drive ugly and unattractive separation.”

He added that the Government should do more to help tackle the threat of the “nihilistic” Islamic State (Isil) in northern Iraq and Syria.

Also speaking to the Congress, Egyptian finance minister