MICHEL Barnier has delivered a damning verdict on the Conservative politicians who took the UK out of the European Union.
The EU's former chief negotiator revealed in his diaries what he really thought of Tory ministers and the government's chief negotiator who conducted the talks.
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He described former foreign secretary Dominic Raab as "decidedly not a man of great subtlety", while he thought Raab's predecessor in the role Jeremy Hunt was "rather odd".
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief negotiator David Frost, he said, "spoke rather arrogantly" while he thought former UK Brexit Secretary David Davis was "vulnerable to ideology and nostalgia".
Michel Barnier with David Davis.
Barnier, who is now running to become the French president, was asked about the views he had given on the Brexiteers when he appeared last night on BBC Two's Newsnight.
He stuck by the descriptions he had given in his book "My Secret Brexit Diary" and was asked whether he respected any of the politicians he was negotiating with.
"I expressed my feeling about one or several members of the British team," he said. "And I am sure they did the same in the British press."
He added: "It is important to be honest and to be clear about ourselves."
Michel Barnier thought David Frost, pictured above, spoke arrogantly.
Barnier also dismissed comments former Number 10 adviser Dominic Cummings’ made about him during the Brexit negotiations and said he was not sure whether Cummings "knew clearly what happened in the negotiations."
The former Downing Street Chief of Staff called the EU diplomat "lazy, emotional bull*****er" on Twitter last week.
BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis asked Barnier: “Dominic Cummings called you a ‘lazy, emotional bull*****er’.
“What did you make of that?
Barnier answered: “I have no comment about Cummings. I never met Mr Cummings, perhaps one time in 10 Downing Street with Johnson. I don’t...I never speak with him.
He continued: “So I am not sure he knew or knows clearly what happened in the negotiations.
“So there is no importance for me on Cummings’ comments about me.”
Maitlis asked: “You don’t think he knew what was going on?
He replied: “No, no importance.”
The host asked again: “So why would he say lazy or emotional?”
Barnier answered: “I don’t know. I don’t know."
Barnier's verdict on the Tory politiicians who conducted the Brexit talks chimes with the views of Scotland's former Brexit Secretary Michael Russell who told off how difficult he found some of the UK politicians he had to deal with.
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