Diplomatic faux pas as Elysee Palace fails to deny local media’s claim that... MACRON ‘CALLED BORIS A CLOWN’

pas as Elysee Palace fails to deny local media’s claim that... Bojo talks to me, we’re having grown-up discussions and then he sticks it to us – it’s always the same circus... It is very sad to see a great country led by a clown FRENCH PRESIDENT’S REPORTE

EmmanuEl macron branded Boris Johnson ‘a clown’ as he ranted about the Prime minister’s handling of post-Brexit disputes, it was claimed yesterday.

In leaked comments that sparked yet another diplomatic row, the French president is said to have accused the Pm of using France as a scapegoat in order to win support at home.

Sources close to mr macron, who is facing a tough battle to be re-elected in april, did not deny that he made the remarks.

a senior government source delivered a withering verdict last night, saying: ‘The Prime minister continues to be a staunch and public advocate for the strength of the uK-French relationship. Our approach will not change, even if we have to wait until the other side of the French presidential election for a change of tone.’

Tory mPs said the quotes showed mr macron cannot claim to be a statesman.

Those in senior government circles believe the Frenchman is guilty of doing exactly what he decried, acting tough with his cross-Channel counterpart for the benefit of his domestic audience.

mr macron is said to have expressed his

‘The attitude of a good-for-nothing’

anger in the wake of last week’s deadly migrant disaster, which further damaged links between the two countries after months of threats over fishing rights and customs checks.

according to satirical weekly le Canard Enchaine, mr macron made the incendiary comments during a trip to Croatia last Thursday, just before he attacked mr Johnson as ‘not serious’ for posting a letter to him on Twitter about how to tackle the migrant crossing crisis – and banned Priti Patel from attending a crucial meeting.

The president reportedly said: ‘Bojo talks to me, he’s down to earth, everything’s fine, we’re having grown-up discussions and then he sticks it to us either beforehand or afterwards in an inelegant manner. It’s always the same circus.’

He said Britain leaving the Eu was the ‘starting point’ of tensions with France. ‘Very quickly, Boris Johnson realised that the situation was catastrophic for the British. There’s no petrol in the pumps, there’s a whole bunch of stuff missing,’ mr macron was quoted as saying.

‘He positions himself as a victim, he makes France a scapegoat, he tries to turn every simplistic situation into a complex problem. We have been in this situation since march.

He has done this on the sausage war [a row over chilled meat imports], on fishing [disputes over licences for French trawlers] and on the submarine affair [in which France lost a multi-billion pound contract to build attack boats for Australia to the US and UK].

‘In private, he says he is sorry to act this way, but he admits that above all he must respond to public opinion. It is very sad to see a great country, with which we could do so much, led by a clown. Johnson has the attitude of a good-fornothing.’ Relations between Paris and London have been poor since the 2016 Brexit vote, with many suspecting that the French want to punish the UK for leaving the EU and dissuade other countries from following suit.

The spat has worsened this year as post-Brexit rules have come into force, leading to a face-to-face confrontation between Mr Macron and Mr Johnson about sausages and Northern Ireland at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June.

France has also been angered after dozens of its fishing boats were banned from UK territorial waters, while the Government is increasingly frustrated that French police – funded by millions of pounds from UK taxpayers – are failing to stop thousands of migrants crossing the Channel in dinghies.

Mr Macron’s broadside emerged just hours before one of his trusted aides launched another attack on the PM.

Europe minister Clement Beaune claimed that Mr Johnson was blaming France to divert attention from his domestic woes.

‘It’s not our fault there are shortages in Britain. It’s not our fault they’re lacking 100,000 lorry drivers,’ he said.

Former French ambassador Sylvie Bermann joked on Times Radio that cross-Channel relations had ‘never been as bad since Waterloo’, the 1815 battle in which Napoleon was finally defeated by the Duke of Wellington.

Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the Mail: ‘Mr Macron should put his own house in order first. Making stupid comments about fishing that not even his colleagues in the EU support, threatening a neighbour and ruling out discussions with a minister [Miss Patel] of an ally – he is behaving like a petulant child.’

Tory backbencher Peter Bone said: ‘Our Prime Minister delivered Brexit and the life-saving vaccine that Mr Macron did everything to rubbish. People will draw their own conclusions about who is a statesman and who is a clown.’