DOMINIC Raab told Irish PM Leo Varadkar to butt-out of British politics after he branded Britain’s post-Brexit foreign policy “petty”.
The Foreign Secretary has ordered UK diplomats to sit separately from EU states at international summits to restore Britain’s independent voice in world affairs.
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In a telegram to embassies across the world he said the move would project an image of a “confident independent country” that did not “seek residual influence” with EU countries.
But Mr Varadkar sparked a fresh UK-Irish spat by branding the plan childish, telling the Andrew Marr Show: “I think it just comes across as being a little bit petty.
“It’s kind of when you’re in primary school or in, in secondary school that you get worried about who you sit beside in class.
“Most international forums that I’ve attended, whether it’s UN or other international bodies, you tend to be seated either in alphabetical order or according to protocol. So I don’t really know what
that’s about, but it seems a bit silly. Surely everyone should be trying to work with everyone.”
Mr Varadkar also doubled down on his controversial description of post-Brexit Britain as a “small country”.
And he predicted the British economy would slip from its current sixth position.
Despite his fighting talk, Mr Varadkar used the same interview to urge Britain to be “cautious about the rhetoric” ahead of UK-EU trade talks.
Mr Raab hit back at Mr Varadkar and put his latest intervention down to next week’s knife-edge election, which polls suggest he could lose power to Sinn Fein.
Mr Raab told Sky News: “I think Leo Varadkar is in the midst of, shall I say, very competitive election in Ireland and I’m not going to interfere in Irish politics and I’d probably suggest he wants to refrain from doing the same.”
