Mr Schulz comments came during a visit to the United Kingdom to discuss Britain’s departure from the EU.
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George Osborne has warned his Tory colleagues against pursuing “hard Brexit”, but said free movement of people is unlikely to survive Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.
“Honestly, I leave London with a feeling that the government is undecided about how and when they should trigger Article 50”, Schulz said.
But Mr Johnson replied: “Well, I, y’know, I’m very very happy to be, er, doing the job that I’m doing and I think what people want us to do is get on and, er, if you’ll forgive me, get on and deliver the agenda that Theresa May and the government have”.
European Parliament president Martin Schulz visited Britain and held talks with May about Britain leaving the EU.
“He’s setting out his view that it’s improbable”, May’s spokeswoman said afterwards, adding that the premier “recognises that people have their differing views”.The three ministers with the biggest role to play in getting Britain out of the EU – Johnson, Davis and global trade minister Liam Fox – all favour a “hard” Brexit.
But aside from perturbed investors, Britain’s new leader must balance an abundance of views on Brexit: German and French leaders facing elections in 2017, a divided electorate that will vote again in 2020 and a strong pro-Brexit wing in her party and government.
He said the government could not ignore the referendum result but said the European Union would not be in a position for serious negotiations until autumn 2017 because of French and German elections.
Since former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned in the wake of the referendum result, Theresa May has found herself in an unenviable position. “There are millions of ordinary Americans who’ve been let down, who’ve had a bad time, who feel the political class in Washington are detached from them”, Farage told the crowd in Jackson, Mississippi.
He said: “We Europeans can never accept Polish workers being beaten up, harassed or even murdered in the streets of Essex”.
Mr Schulz suggested that the Foreign Secretary might be too busy to understand all the complexities of Europe. “The only correct attitude towards such violence is zero tolerance and this is the signal expected from the authorities in all member states”, he said.
In his interview on Thursday, Johnson dismissed as “baloney” the notion that Britain would have to continue to allow free movement of people within the European Union if it wanted access to the single market.
Simon Tilford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said that if Britain better understood the thinking of EU governments and businesses, it could secure a deal allowing tariff-free trade in goods with Europe.
He conceded that many people voted for Brexit to stem immigration, but said it is wrong to “sacrifice single market access to the altar of migration”.
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“And we want the European Union to continue to be strong and have a close relationship with it, and I think that will be in both our interests”.
