Newly appointed Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street in central London after new Prime Minister Theresa May gave him the role.
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Asked for a response to Mr Ayrault’s remarks, and his own record of undiplomatic comments, Mr Johnson said it was “inevitable that there would be a certain amount of plaster coming off the ceilings in the Chancelleries of Europe” after Britain’s Brexit vote, and they were “making their views known in a free and frank way”.
“There’s a massive difference between leaving the European Union and our relations with Europe which if anything I think are going to be intensified”, he said.
“The Secretary and Foreign Secretary Johnson agreed that the U.S.-U.K. special relationship is as essential as ever, and they pledged to work closely together as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies to address the full range of challenges we face and to meet our responsibilities around the world”.
She also cleared out rivals, firing stalwarts of David Cameron’s outgoing government including Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and – most significantly – Lord Chancellor Michael Gove, her onetime competitor for the job of Conservative leader. “He lied a lot during the campaign”.
The former mayor of London was a vocal Brexit campaigner, but somewhat unexpectedly revealed at the last minute that he’d decided not to stand in the Conservative leadership race.
However, more recently Johnson has backed off from his comments, calling the former first lady “particularly gracious and charming” in 2015.
This time writing in The Sun, a downmarket, mass-circulation tabloid, Johnson made reference to Obama’s “part-Kenyan” roots.
Before becoming Britain’s top diplomat, Johnson had an awkward relationship with America’s erstwhile top diplomat and now presumptive Democratic nominee.
And Germany’s finance minister is signaling a willingness to forget past statements by Boris Johnson, Britain’s new foreign secretary.
The outspoken European Parliament chief Martin Schulz also slammed May’s new cabinet, saying it was based on solving internal party splits rather than the national interest.
“I just find it absolutely freakish that we are being lectured by the Americans about giving up our sovereignty, giving up control, when the Americans won’t even sign up to the worldwide Convention on the Law of the Sea, and – let alone the global Criminal Court”, he told the BBC.
“I don’t know if it surprised me”, he said.
Turkey was in a more forgiving mood after Johnson won a magazine prize for a limerick depicting Erdogan cavorting with a goat written to ridicule the Turkish leader’s efforts to have German courts punish a German satirist for insulting him.
Jean L Kekedo, Papua New Guinea’s High Commissioner in London, was not amused by the quip, asking “How far removed and ill-informed can Mr Johnson be from the reality of the situation in modern-day Papua New Guinea?”
That may be a stretch for Johnson.
“I wish it was a joke but I fear it isn’t”, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt tweeted at the news of Johnson’s appointment.
“Now, finally, there can be no more doubt that British politics is not concerned with the country’s welfare, but with haggling for positions, personal ambitions and power plays”.
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In the U.S., Johnson is considered something of an outspoken figure and “has controversially bucked the Western trend and praised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for battling the Islamic State”, according to one Washington newspaper.
