‘Donnez-moi un break’: Boris Johnson tells France to ‘get a grip’ over Aukus row

Boris Johnson has suggested France should “get a grip” over its anger towards the Aukus pact between the UK, US and Australia, which saw the latter scrap a $90bn submarine program with Paris.

“I just think it’s time for some of our dearest friends around the world to ‘prenez un grip’ [get a grip] about all this and ‘donnez-moi un break’ [give me a break],” the prime minister said when asked about the row on Wednesday.

Johnson also suggested the deal is not “exclusive”, nor is it “adversarial towards China”.