UPDATED: Frontrunner to become British PM says she will judge the French president by ‘deeds not words.’
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UK-France relations are heading for “serious problems” if the nations cannot say whether they are friends or enemies, the French president has said.
Emmanuel Macron reacted to remarks made by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who said the jury was out on whether the French president was “friend or foe”.
Mr Macron insisted the UK remained an ally, despite the occasional error made by its leaders.
And Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Mr Macron was a “good buddy” of the UK.
Senior politicians have accused Ms Truss, who is favourite to succeed Mr Johnson as prime minister next month, of damaging the UK’s relationship with France, a close ally.
Liz Truss said “the jury is out” on whether French President Emmanuel Macron is Britain’s “friend or foe” at a Conservative leadership campaign event Thursday.
The hot favorite to become Britain’s new prime minister next month vowed to judge Macron by his “deeds not words” in her cross-Channel dealings as leader.
Her comments will only add further tensions to the stormy Anglo-French relationship, which has suffered badly since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016.
Macron has endured a difficult relationship with the current outgoing U.K. prime minister, Boris Johnson, while Truss has been heavily criticized in EU capitals for her plans to rewrite parts of the Brexit divorce deal related to trade in Northern Ireland.
Asked directly at a hustings event in Norfolk, England Thursday evening whether Macron was “friend or foe,” Truss replied: “The jury is out. But if I become PM, I’ll hold him to deeds not words.”
Truss’ leadership rival, former U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak, described Macron as a “friend.”
Truss is widely expected to win the Conservative leadership contest when the result is announced on September 5, becoming the U.K.’s third female prime minister the following day.
Her comment came at the end of the hustings during a series of “quickfire questions” posed by the host, TalkTV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer.
When asked the same question Mr Sunak said Mr Macron was a “friend”.
Former Conservative minister Gavin Barwell also questioned Ms Truss’s comment saying: “You would have thought the foreign secretary was aware we are in a military alliance with France.”
Another ex-Tory minister, David Gauke, said: “There’s playing to the gallery and then there’s letting the prejudices of the gallery go to your head, especially when now is one of the worst times to try to fragment the West.”
The UK and France have clashed over several issues in recent years, including migrant boat crossings in the Channel, a military pact between Britain, the US and Australia, and Brexit measures involving Northern Ireland. Mr Macron has sometimes publicly criticised the Conservative government’s approach.
Photo – British Foreign Secretary and leadership candidate Liz Truss . EPA-EFE/PETER POWELL
