ALDE group leader Guy Verhofstadt said, “politics never fails to surprise me” after comments by the three British MPs, Boris Johnson, Michael Fallon and Liam Fox.
Verhofstadt pointed out apparent contradictions in the British Ministers’ recent policy statements.
First, UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, a leading light of the Leave campaign, said on Tuesday that Britain would be one of the strongest supporters of Turkey’s bid to join the EU.
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On this, Verhofstadt expressed his disbelief, saying, “So Boris Johnson wants to help Turkey join the EU - after he just campaigned for the UK to leave the EU on the basis that Turkey would be joining the EU in the near future.”
Writing on Facebook, the former Belgian Prime Minister also took issue with UK defence secretary Michael Fallon’s remarks that as long as the UK remained a member of the EU, it would block any attempt to form a common military force.
Verhofstadt said, “The UK defence minister says the UK government will block EU efforts to enhance its security capabilities, even though the UK is leaving the EU - yet they say they want an enhanced security relationship with the EU after Brexit.”
The Liberal MEP also took a swipe at comments by Fox, who, said Verhofstadt, had “indicated the UK will leave the EU’s customs union because he thinks other markets are more important - while his Prime Minister tells us the EU27 ‘will sign’ an ambitious trade deal with the UK.”
Elsewhere,the UK government has been forced by a senior British judge to reveal secret legal arguments for refusing to let the Westminster Parliament decide when and how the UK should withdraw from the EU.
High court judge, Justice Cranston, swept aside restrictions on publishing official documents before the hearing on 13 October.
The ruling will be seen as a preliminary victory for those challenging Theresa May’s power to trigger Brexit.
In the released documents, lawyers for the UK government argued that it is “constitutionally impermissible” for Parliament to be given the authority rather than the Prime Minister and dismiss any notion that the devolved nations - Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales - will have any say in the process.
They add: “The appropriate point at which the UK should begin the procedure required by article 50 [of the European Union treaty] to give effect to [notifying the UK’s exit] is a matter of high, if not the highest policy.”
But, in an order on Tuesday, Cranston told both parties: “Against the background of the principle of open justice, it is difficult to see a justification for restricting publication of documents which are generally available under [court] rules.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s most senior police officer says that a “horrible spike” in hate crime after Britain’s vote to leave the EU was at least partly linked to the EU referendum on 23 June.
Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan police commissioner, told a hearing at London’s City Hall that hate crime was showing signs of decreasing after a sharp rise in June and July, but it had still not returned to pre-referendum levels.
Monitoring showed a 16 per cent increase in hate crime in the 12 months to August. It also showed that in the 38 days after the referendum there were more than 2300 recorded race-hate offences in London, compared with 1400 in the 38 days before the vote.