‘Stupid Boy’: EU, UK square off over Brexit again

BRUSSELS — Diplomatic language has gone out of the window in the standoff over Britain’s departure from the European Union, with a U.K. government delegate calling one top EU official a “stupid boy.”

Martin Callanan, Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union of the United Kingdom, said ahead of an EU meeting that EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans has spread “childish insults” about the British negotiating stance which has failed to bring a breakthrough in over two years of talks.

Timmermans says in a BBC documentary to be aired late Thursday that U.K. negotiators had been “running around like idiots.”

Callanan, quoting a famous riposte from the British sitcom “Dad’s Army,” said Timmermans was a “stupid boy.”

The Associated Press