French President Emmanuel Macron was a “positive nuisance” during acrimonious Brexit negotiations and wanted to punish the UK for leaving the EU, former British prime minister Boris Johnson has claimed.
In the latest excerpts from his memoir “Unleashed” due to be published next month, Johnson said the French leader saw Brexit as “a terrible snub to the EU and to his view of the world”.
Johnson argues in the book, being serialised by the Daily Mail newspaper, that Macron tried to “put his Cuban-heeled bootee into Brexit Britain” over various issues during the protracted divorce talks.
Johnson — who took power in 2019, three years after Britain voted to leave the European Union — said that included “weaponising” the issue of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
“It seemed at least possible to me that he was weaponising the problem, Belarus-style, and discreetly allowing the migrants to come across,” Johnson wrote.
The former UK leader added that Macron was “personally charming” and the pair “often agreed on important issues” but that “he really meant it when he said that Brexit Britain must be punished”.
“On some issues I am afraid I therefore suspected him of being a positive nuisance.”
Johnson also details in the memoir — set for UK publication on October 10 — how he “put French noses badly out of joint” by agreeing the AUKUS military alliance.
The deal for Australia to break a contract to procure nuclear submarines from France, and instead buy them from the US and UK, was secretly sealed at a 2021 G7 summit in Britain, according to Johnson.
“My most important job at Carbis Bay was to organise a discreet three-way meeting… without being rumbled by the French,” he wrote of convening US President Joe Biden and Australian counterpart Scott Morrison.
“In great secrecy we pulled it off,” Johnson said, adding the subsequent announcement meant “they all went predictably tonto in Paris”.
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