The President of France has hit back at Liz Truss after the Tory leadership frontrunner said the jury was out on whether he was a friend or a foe.
Emmanuel Macron described Britain as an ally and said its people would always be friends of France, despite the occasional error made by its leaders.
“Britain is a friend of France, I don’t doubt that for a second,” he said when asked about the remarks by Ms Truss, who is widely expected to become Britain’s next prime minister.
But he warned: “If France and Britain cannot say whether they are friends or enemies…then we are headed for serious problems.”
The foreign secretary has been accused of a “woeful” lack of judgement after she told Tory members at a hustings in Norwich on Thursday that she was undecided as to whether he was a “friend or foe”.
The UK and France have clashed on a number of issues in recent months, including boat crossings in the Channel and travel chaos at Dover.In an apparent attempt to smooth diplomatic relations, Boris Johnson described the French president as a “tres bon buddy” of the UK.
He also claimed that Mr Macron was a “great, great fan of our country”. “I think I’ve always had very good relations with Emmanuel Macron,” he told reporters, “Emmanuel Macron est un tres bon buddy de notre pays.”
Allies of Ms Truss also attempted to play down the row, describing her comments as “light hearted”.
During a series of quickfire questions, TalkTV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer, hosting the hustings, asked Ms Truss: “President Macron, friend or foe?”
“The jury’s out,” she responded to loud applause. She then added: “But if I become prime minister, I would judge him on deeds, not words.”
Her rival Rishi Sunak answered “friend” when asked the same question.
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said the Macron comments showed a “woeful lack of judgement” by insulting a close ally.
“At a time when the West must stay united in the face of Russian attempts to divide us, the fact the foreign secretary has chosen to needlessly insult one of our closest allies shows a terrible and worrying lack of judgement,” he said.
He added: “Liz Truss’ decision making has clearly become clouded by weeks and weeks of playing to the gallery of Tory members rather than focusing on the country.”
Former Tory minister and peer Gavin Barwell said: “You would have thought the Foreign Secretary was aware we are in a military alliance with France”.
Elsewhere in the hustings, Ms Truss conceded that if it were a choice between relying on France or China for nuclear expertise, she would pick France.
She said: “I’m very clear that we need to boost our nuclear industry including Sizewell, including the small modular reactors that are produced in Derbyshire.
“Frankly, I would rather that we do have more homegrown nuclear expertise, and regrettably we lost that because we failed to do these things 20 years ago, or 30 years ago,” she said. “If it’s a choice between relying on France and relying on China, I would take France.”
The chancellor Nadhim Zahawi defended Ms Truss, calling her comments “light-hearted”.
“It was clearly said as a light-hearted comment with a touch of humour,” Mr Zahawi told broadcasters on Friday.
The Truss ally continued: “And there was lots of chuckles around it. Liz and I both know that France is a strategic ally in defence, cyber, in our war effort in helping Ukraine, all these things we work very closely together.”
