Brexit: Guy Verhofstadt mocks Theresa May's Florence speech, saying she understands 'betrayal and backstabbing'

EU Parliament's Brexit lead also accuses Boris Johnson of using 'language of totalitarianism'

Guy Verhofstadt has mocked Theresa May for giving a major speech on Brexit in the Italian city of Florence.

The European Parliament's lead Brexit negotiator said it was "surreal" that he was giving a speech about Europe in London - "the capital of a country that is about to leave the European Union" - while Ms May chose a European city for her address on Brexit.

And he poked fun at the Prime Minister as she struggles to hold together a divided Tory party amid mounting tensions over Brexit.

Ms May travelled to Florence earlier this month to give a speech laying out the UK Government's Brexit position.

Referencing Florence's famously turbulent political history, Mr Verhofstadt joked that he understood why Ms May had decided to speak there.

Speaking at the London School of Economics, he said: "I think she chose Florence because Florentine politics in the 15th Century made her feel at home.

"Backstabbing, betrayal, noble families fighting for power... It is an environment that she recognised very well."

Mr Verhofstadt suggested Brexit was a form of "dictatorship of the majority", saying the views of the 48 per cent of Britons who voted for the UK to remain in the EU must be taken into account.

He said: "48 per cent is not a minority you can ignore, because doing politics is about trying to take all big opinions on board and to find compromises, not to poke up differences.

"John Stuart Mill teaches us that democracy is not a dictatorship of the majority and certainly not on fundamental issues, on issues of vital interest, national interest - and I think membership of the European Union is a vital national issue and interest.

Views of every group of citizens on Brexit should be taken into account, he added.

In a thinly-veiled attack on Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, Mr Verhofstadt criticised those who suggest it is impossible to hold British and European identity at the same time.

In an article for The Telegraph earlier in September, Mr Johnson wrote: "I look at so many young people with the 12 stars lipsticked on their faces and I am troubled with the thought that people are beginning to have genuinely split allegiances.

“And when people say that they feel they have more in common with others in Europe than with people who voted Leave, I want to say: ‘But that is part of the reason why people voted Leave'."

Mr Verhofstadt said: "Criticising people for wanting to keep their European identity, accusing them of split allegiance, is binary and old-fashioned. I think it's a reductionist view on identity.

"It's perfectly possible to be a Londoner, English, British and European at the same time - there is no contradiction and it has nothing to do with split allegiance.

"My message is: watch out, beware of politicians who want to define your identity. The only reason they do so is to categorise people, to reduce you to your nationality, your ethnicity, your religion. 'Split allegiance' are two words that belong to the language of states that are totalitarian, and not to democracies like Britain."

The Belgian MEP also said a Brexit deal would need to be agreed within the next year if it is to be finalised before the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.

Saying he believed a deal would ultimately be reached, Mr Verhofstadt added: "There has to be an agreement in October or November [2018] because then this agreement will go to the European Parliament and we need four or five months [to ratify it]."