Britain’s prime ministerial hopeful Liz Truss, in the race against former Chancellor Rishi Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party leader, came under fire on Friday over her “jury was still out” remarks about French President Emmanuel Macron. The Foreign Secretary’s remark came as she was asked if President Macron was a “friend or foe” of the UK at Tory leadership hustings.
The 47-year-old added that if elected Prime Minister she would judge Macron on “deeds not words”. She was responding to a quickfire question at the event in Norwich on Thursday evening and in response to the same question, Sunak replied that the French President was a “friend” and has previously said he wants to reset the UK’s relationship with Europe if he wins the race to succeed Johnson.
The Opposition Labour Party accused Truss of “a woeful lack of judgment” as it would be seen as an insult to one of “Britain’s closest allies”. Macron himself responded by accusing the Cabinet minister of grandstanding while striking a more diplomatic tone.
“It is never good to lose one’s bearings. Let me put it another way. Whoever the person is who is considered the next leader of Britain, I don’t have any doubts. Britain is a friend of France, said the French president in Paris. “You know, we live in a complicated world. You have more and more illiberal democracies, authoritarian democracies, with powers of imbalance. If we are not able between French and British to say whether we are friend or foes the term is not neutral we are heading for serious problems, he said.
“So, I say that the British people, the United Kingdom is a friendly, strong and allied nation, regardless of its leaders, and sometimes in spite of its leaders or the little mistakes they may make in grandstanding,” Macron added. Truss’ own party colleagues also took to social media to criticise her comments, with former foreign minister Alistair Burt saying she has made a “serious error” and should have struck a more diplomatic tone.
During the hustings in eastern England, Truss was asked if the French President was a “friend or foe”, to which she replied: “The jury is out.” “If I become Prime Minister, I will judge him on deeds, not words,” she added. “You would have thought the foreign secretary was aware we are in a military alliance with France,” said former Conservative minister Gavin Barwell in reaction. Another former 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.” Truss’ comments have also been picked up by French media, which has highlighted post-Brexit strain in the UK-French relationship as well as recent tensions over migrant boat crossings in the English Channel and a new military pact between Britain, the US and Australia called AUKUS.
Macron, who was re-elected French President in April this year, has sometimes publicly criticised the Conservative government’s approach. Last year Macron reacted angrily to British Prime Minister Johnson’s public call for France to take back migrants who reach the UK.
In the same quickfire round of questions on Thursday, Truss dubbed Opposition Leader Keir Starmer as extremely boring when asked who she would rather be stuck in a lift with him or Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Sunak, in contrast, evoked audience laughter with his response when he said he would rather take the stairs.
The Norwich hustings marked the penultimate campaign event before a final hustings event in London on August 31 ahead of the close of polling on September 2. The results will be declared on September 5 and the newly elected Tory leader will take charge at 10 Downing Street soon after. While Truss is the frontrunner in the race according to most pre-poll surveys, Sunak has insisted that there is still everything left to play for and has also reaffirmed that he has no plans to quit politics if he is defeated.
However, the likelihood of him joining a Truss led Cabinet is something he has left quite vague, only saying that he believes ministers need to agree on the big things because it’s tough, as I found, when you don’t, with reference to his disagreements with outgoing Prime Minister Johnson in the lead up to his resignation as Chancellor last month.
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