Macron says Brexit is the product of 'lies and false promises'

French president Emmanuel Macron has claimed Brexit is the product of ‘lies and false promises’ in a bitter broadside at Britain delivered during his New Year address to the nation. 

Macron, who has grand ambitions for greater EU integration, launched the attack days after being blamed for holding up a Brexit deal with fishing demands. 

The French president was also accused of using a ban on British freight, designed to stop the mutated Kent strain of coronavirus reaching France, to ratchet up the tensions in the Brexit negotiations.   

In the address delivered from the Elysee Palace, Paris, Mr Macron questioned the strength of Britain’s sovereignty following its departure from the European Union.

Yet he insisted that the UK ‘remains our neighbour but also our friend and close ally’ after the departure was formally completed at 11pm on New Year’s Eve.  

Mr Macron said: ‘A few days ago, we reached an agreement to organise our future relations, defending our interests, our industries, our fishermen and our unity, he said in a video address. 

‘The United Kingdom remains our neighbour but also our friend and ally. This choice of leaving Europe, this Brexit, was the child of European malaise and lots of lies and false promises.’  

Mr Macron assured that France is ‘first of all in Europe’ and added: ‘I will do everything to ensure we remain the masters of our destiny and our lives. 

‘But this sovereignty also acts through the stronger, more autonomous and more united EU that we have built in 2020.’

Under the post-Brexit agreement struck on Christmas Eve, the EU will give up only 25 per cent of the value of fish caught in UK waters – with a five-and-a-half-year transition period rather than 80 per cent over three years initially demanded by the UK.

French fishing bosses welcomed the deal after they had feared No Deal because they would have been locked out of British waters.    

The video address comes after his father, Jean-Michel Macron, 70, spoke publicly about his son for the first time since he entered office in 2017 and denounced him as a ‘self-serving’ politician.

However commentators have suggested that his father has become irritated by how the French head of state has portrayed his maternal grandmother, teacher Germaine Noguès, as the key figure throughout his childhood, according to The Times. 

His father expressed dismay at his son’s choice to allow magazines to photograph him along with sharing details of his private life. 

However Mr Macron, who is a surgeon living in Amiens, northern France, where his son grew up, added: ‘Emmanuel is a great actor, a seducer. That is useful in politics.’