Johnson causes stir with WWII jibe
EUROPE: European leaders rounded on British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson yesterday after he compared the French president to a World War II prison guard administering ‘‘punishment beatings’’.
Johnson had been asked about remarks from an aide to Francois Hollande, saying Britain could not expect a better trading relationship with Europe outside the EU.
‘‘If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anyone who chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War II movie, then I don’t think that’s the way forward,’’ Johnson said.
One of the EU’s Brexit negotiators, the Belgian Guy Verhofstadt, demanded that British Prime Minister Theresa May force Johnson to apologise for his ‘‘abhorrent and deeply unhelpful remark’’.
Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s prime minister, said people should act in an ‘‘adult’’ way. ‘‘It’s a very complicated situation, it’s not good for the EU, so let’s not make it worse,’’ he added.
The row came as: A poll showed that the public back May’s Brexit stance by a margin of more than two to one but most think the EU will refuse to agree to her demands.
The Supreme Court said it would rule on Tuesday whether Parliament must be consulted before Article 50 is triggered.
HSBC announced plans to move 1000 jobs from London to Paris as part of its preparations for Brexit.
EU leaders warned that Britain would face a €60 billion (NZ$89.5b) bill to leave the union.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, welcomed May’s ‘‘warm’’ support for a successful EU, describing her stance as closer to Winston Churchill than the US president-elect, Donald Trump.
Downing Street sought to excuse Johnson’s intervention, despite May’s warning on Wednesday, as she set out her Brexit negotiating strategy for the first time, that ‘‘every stray word and every hyped-up media report is going to make it harder for us to get the right deal for Britain’’.
May’s spokeswoman said of Johnson: ‘‘He was making a theatrical comparison. He was in no way suggesting that anyone was a Nazi.’’
Asked whether it would be better for ministers to avoid wartime comparisons, the spokeswoman added: ‘‘There is not a government policy of not mentioning the war.’’
Michael Gove, who resigned as Johnson’s campaign manager to stage his own Tory leadership bid last year, also rushed to his defence, tweeting: ‘‘People ‘offended’ by the foreign secretary’s comments are humourless, deliberately obtuse, snowflakes – it’s a witty metaphor.’’
The comments from Downing Street come a few weeks after May delivered a dressing-down to Johnson for accusing Saudi Arabia, a key ally, of engaging in ‘‘proxy wars’’ in the Middle East.
Jo Johnson also defended his elder sibling.
The universities minister said: ‘‘He was using colourful language to get across an important point, which is [that] we’ve got to look in a cool, calm way at what’s in all of our economic interests.’’
At a Holocaust Education Trust reception, the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, said: ‘‘We have to push back when people lazily reach for glib comparisons that belittle what happened . . . calling those we disagree with ‘Nazis’ or claiming someone’s actions are ‘just like the Holocaust’.’’
A Labour spokesman said: ‘‘We are all aware that the foreign secretary has a habit of making wild and inappropriate comments. Talking about World War II in that context is another one of those and that is not going to be something that is going to improve the climate for this negotiation.’’
British companies will be given a maximum of two years to adapt after a Brexit deal is finalised in 2019, Brexit secretary David Davis indicated yesterday.
He limited any ‘‘implementation phase’’ to one or two years as he warned MPs that a vote to reject the deal would not keep Britain in the EU.
May will seek today to underline that Britain will champion free trade in meetings with business leaders at the world economic forum being hald in the Swiss resort of Davos.
She is expected to state the need to regain support for capitalism after the backlash against globalisation. – The Times