French foreign minister describes British foreign secretary as “a liar with his back to the wall”

Europe needs to pull together and instead the British are causing trouble. Yesterday, France’s foreign minister, speaking on Europe 1 radio, described his newly-appointed British counterpart as “a liar with his back to the wall”.

Jean-Marc Ayrault said Boris Johnson had lied to the British people during the recent EU referendum campaign and would now be under pressure “to defend his country”. But France needs a negotiating partner who is “credible and reliable”, he said.

Germany’s Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, took a more circumspect approach to the appointment. Johnson had (incredibly stupidly) compared the aims of the European Union with those of Adolf Hitler. But asked what he expected of working with Johnson, given his views, Schaeuble said, “You see that it’s an advantage not to have such a great command of the English language. We in Germany have had good experience with putting comments made during a campaign into the file for election campaigns, and forgetting them on the day after the democratic decision has been made. So I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

You have to wonder what meetings on European terrorism are going to be like, with Johnson at the table.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, French Foreign Minister