Boris Johnson like Le Pen and Trump, says top EU official

“Populist”: Boris Johnson
Jeremy Selwyn
Joseph Watts26 May 2016
WEST END FINAL

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Boris Johnson was today compared with French hard-Right leader Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump by a top EU official.

It came as EU President Jean-Claude Juncker also lashed out at the former mayor, suggesting that Mr Johnson’s claims about the EU are not “in line with reality”.

The attacks provoked an immediate response from the Tory London MP who accused Mr Juncker and other EU leaders of trying to suck Britain into “an EU super-state”.

Mr Juncker’s top official Martin Selmayr took to Twitter today to launch his assault on Mr Johnson, saying: “2017 with Trump, Le Pen, Boris Johnson, Beppe Grillo?

Donald Trump

“A horror scenario that shows well why it is worth fighting populism.”

Le Pen is the French National Front leader whose recent polls scores suggest she could win the first round of the presidential election.

Front National leader Marine Le Pen

US presidential candidate Donald Trump threatened to ban Muslims from the US, while comedian turned politician Beppe Grillo is leading a populist movement in Italy.

Asked about Mr Johnson, Mr Juncker said: “I’m reading in the British papers that Boris Johnson spent part of his life in Brussels.

“It’s time for him to come back to Brussels in order to check if everything he is telling the British people is in line with reality. I don’t think so. So he would be welcome in Brussels at any time.”

Asked whether EU institutions could work with Mr Johnson as prime minister, he added: “The atmosphere of our talks would be better if Britain is staying in the European Union.”

President of the European Council Donald Tusk was more diplomatic, when asked about the former mayor’s views on the EU and his potential to lead the UK.

He said: “I think it’s quite normal to have normal relations with politicians and at the same time to have your own opinion about their opinions.”

Earlier this month Mr Johnson compared attempts to unite Europe under the EU banner to attempts to unify Europe under Napoleon and Hitler.

Mr Johnson said today: “I’m afraid what I’m saying to the British people is in line with reality. If we vote to remain which I sincerely hope that we don’t on June 23, then [EU leaders] will go on with measures to take us further in to a federal European super-state.”

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