{"id":270550,"date":"2025-07-17T23:26:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T23:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270550\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T23:26:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T23:26:17","slug":"i-was-in-the-room-as-another-european-leader-gave-a-scathing-verdict-on-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270550\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I was in the room as another European leader gave a scathing verdict on Brexit’"},"content":{"rendered":"

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz became the second European leader in a week after Emmanuel Macron to voice his dispair over Brexit, and the audience was reminded how it has hampered efforts to tackle small boats<\/p>\n

17:28, 17 Jul 2025Updated 19:14, 17 Jul 2025<\/p>\n

Dave is a political correspondent based in The Mirror’s Westminster office in Parliament. He joined the politics team in mid-2022, just in time for the Conservative Party leadership contest which saw Liz Truss become PM. Dave covered his second Tory leadership contest just a few weeks later, and is now covering the Home Affairs beat.<\/p>\n

A week ago it was Emmanuel Macron lambasting Brexit and its impact on the UK’s small boats crisis.<\/p>\n

This time around it was German Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying he “deplores” the decision to leave the EU. He may not have been as punchy as the French President, but the message was just as clear – it’s been a mess.<\/p>\n

Brexit may have been an elephant in the room for some time, but there’s a growing willingness to talk about the way it’s hindered efforts to stop the boats. At a press conference at the Airbus HQ in Stevenage<\/a>, Mr Starmer dipped his toe into the thorny issue himself as he thanked the German Chancellor for his help.<\/p>\n

The penny has finally dropped that if Britain is ever going to tackle the trafficking gangs, it must leave the fighting with Europe behind. Last week there was a new return deal with France – for the first time since leaving the EU. And now Germany has agreed to do more to stop the flow of people trying to reach the UK.<\/p>\n

Up to this point this has been hampered by – you’ve guessed it – Brexit, the audience was told. By the end of the year Germany will start raiding warehouses where small boat components are stored. It’s a sign Mr Starmer’s charm offensive with European leaders is paying off.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Jess Phillips gives brutal verdict on suspended Labour MPs as huge row erupts<\/a>\"KeirKeir Starmer and Friedrich Merz at a joint press conference in Stevenage(Image: Getty Images)READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz became the second European leader in a week after Emmanuel Macron to voice his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,34,2000,299,5187,1699,1945,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-270550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-emmanuel-macron","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-friedrich-merz","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114871165591701342","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}