European commissioner says Britain's May is 'weak'

[BERLIN] The EU's budget commissioner Gunther Oettinger voiced concerns Wednesday that negotiations on Brexit would stay deadlocked, as he called British PM Theresa May "weak" while mocking her foreign minister.

"Madame May is weak and Boris Johnson has the same hairdo as Trump. That says everything," the German commissioner said during a discussion with students at a European school in Karlsruhe, according to remarks carried by national news agency DPA.

"We can only hope that sensible citizens will put Madame May on the path to a clever Brexit," said Mr Oettinger.

British politicians are struggling to overcome divisions on Brexit, with the House of Lords on Tuesday handing the government fresh legislative defeats on the issue, hours after Mr Johnson dismissed as "crazy" one of Mrs May's proposals for future EU customs arrangements.

But the pressure is mounting on Mrs May as the European Union is expecting Britain to present its plan for new customs arrangements after Brexit before a June summit in Brussels, ahead of a hoped-for agreement on future trading ties by October.

AFP