French president Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked a diplomatic row after disparaging his British counterpart Gordon Brown’s response to the economic crisis on French TV.
In a 90-minute grilling carried simultaneously on three TV channels last night, the French president said he would not repeat Britain’s economic “mistakes”, adding that the Mr Brown's flagship VAT cut had “absolutely not worked”.
The Elysee Palace this morning attempted to smooth over the incident, assuring officials at Downing Street that his comments were not intended as an attack on British economic policy.
But a Downing Street spokesman left little doubt of the irritation they caused at Number 10, telling reporters: “The Elysee have been in contact this morning to assure us that these remarks were not meant as a critique of UK economic policy — which is nice.”
The spokesman declined to say whether this morning’s telephone conversation between officials in Downing Street and the Elysee was initiated by London or Paris.
Challenged last night over his own plans to boost the French economy by infrastructure spending rather than tax cuts, Mr Sarkozy said: “Britain is cutting taxes. That will bring them nothing. Consumption continues to decrease in Britain.”
Reuters