From 'liar' to 'dear Boris': Johnson eases his way through official visit to France

Paris: France’s top diplomat Jean-Marc Ayrault may have called him a “liar” over his Brexit campaign, but Boris Johnson’s command of French helped ease his way through his first official visit to Paris as Britain’s foreign minister.

Johnson’s surprise appointment after being pilloried for his campaign for Britain to leave the EU shocked many in France where he is seen as a gleeful “French-basher”.

When he was named as foreign minister the Liberation newspaper put a picture of him sliding down a zip-line on its front page with the words in English “Good Luck”.

When first asked about his new counterpart, Ayrault said that during the Brexit campaign Johnson had “lied a lot to the British. Now he has his back to the wall.”

However needs must, and after US Secretary of State John Kerry, it was Ayrault’s turn to look past Johnson’s repeated diplomatic gaffes.

“Dear Boris”, began a beaming Ayrault as he welcomed Johnson on his first European bilateral visit, under large chandeliers in an ornate salon in the Quai d’Orsay.

Ayrault said Johnson “knows France well, he speaks very good French by the way.”

Johnson shook his head in mock humility, grinning as he stood beside his counterpart who gushed over the two nations’ long history, common values and friendship.

“I am delighted to be in France today, thank you Jean-Marc, for welcoming me at such a difficult time,” Johnson said in perfect French – honed during his time as a journalist in Brussels.

Johnson read from a prepared text throughout the briefing, but his accent and delivery clearly charmed French journalists.

His visit comes just two days after France’s latest terror attack, which saw two young jihadists storm a church and slit the throat of an 86-year-old priest.

“The threats we face are the same,” said Johnson, while Ayrault highlighted the cooperation between Paris and London intelligence services.

“The United Kingdom and France are united, we have common values,” he said, adding that he and Ayrault “have embarked on a close relationship.”

During his Brexit campaign, Johnson said the EU was “thought up by high-minded French bureaucrats” and in praising Britain’s manufacturing capabilities said “we export ‘French knickers’ to France”.

When he was still mayor of London, France’s Le Monde daily described Johnson as an “expert in Monty Python politics: avoid looking like you are taking things too seriously.”

Johnson did not take any questions at the Paris press conference, but when he did face the media in London last week alongside Kerry, he faced a barrage of tough questions over his compendium of undiplomatic gaffes.

“I’m afraid that there is such a rich thesaurus now of things that I have said that have … somehow been misconstrued that it would really take me too long to engage in a full-blown itinerary of apology to all concerned,” he told reporters.