Theresa May has been accused of lying to the British people by a senior ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the plan to restore dark blue British passports after Brexit.
German MEP Manfred Weber mocked the focus on changing the colour of the travel document and stressed that it would have been possible to have blue passports without leaving the European Union.
Boris on Brexit: £350m a week to NHS was 'underestimate'
Mr Weber, leader of the centre-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament, also warned the Prime Minister that a deal on a transitional period after Brexit in March 2019 could not be taken for granted.
The passport story was a “scam” and a “drastic example for the lack of leadership” in Westminster, he said.
Mrs May has hailed the move to bring back blue travel documents as an expression of the UK’s post-Brexit “sovereignty and independence”.
But Mr Weber said: “The first problem in this respect is about honesty – the whole story is a scam.
Boris on Brexit: £350m a week to NHS was 'underestimate'
“EU law does not say anything about passport colours. Croatia have navy blue passports for years already, you didn’t have to leave the Union for that, so why do you not tell people the truth?”
He added: “The blue passports are the first and the only real thing the British Government has achieved in more than one-and-a-half years of negotiations.
“If I were a British citizen I would be deeply worried about the priorities of my Government.”
Addressing MEPs in Strasbourg, Mr Weber also hit out at Brexit Secretary David Davis over complaints about the EU planning for a “no deal” scenario and Chancellor Philip Hammond over concerns for the City of London’s access to the single market.
“My message to London is please stop complaining, please deliver. Give us an outlook about what you want to achieve for the future relationships,” he said.
Boris on Brexit: £350m a week to NHS was 'underestimate'
And he delivered a “clear warning” that if the conditions for a transitional deal are not correct then his MEPs would not back it: “The cliff edge is far from being avoided.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel