EMMANUEL Macron issued a calm speech slating Boris Johnson's twisting of the truth on the Northern Ireland Protocol as the French president left the G7 summit yesterday.

Macron and other senior EU figures had been accused of speaking about Northern Ireland “as if it was some kind of different country to the UK” by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

Raab described this as “offensive” and called on the EU to show “respect”.

At a closing news conference of the 47th G7 summit that was held in Cornwall last week, Macron described the "incoherence" in the UK's approach to Northern Ireland.

The National:

In a translated version of his speech, the French president said: "France has never for a single moment disputed UK sovereignty or its territorial integrity or the respect for that.

"Brexit is the child of this very UK sovereignty and took up thousands of hours of EU leaders' time. We Europeans know all about UK sovereignty. No other EU country has made the others spend so much time on its sovereignty. We respect it."

He said that Brexit meant that new rules and a future trade deal were put in place over several years and that all EU leaders want is for this to be respected "seriously, calmly, professionally".

When Johnson became Prime Minister in 2019 he tore up the "Irish backstop" that his predecessor Theresa May had wanted.

The Irish backstop was a policy within the draft withdrawal agreement between Theresa May's government and the EU. It was meant to ensure that the Irish border remains open.

The backstop reconciled issues such as UK sovereignty, the Good Friday Agreement and the Single Market.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson tells G7 summit UK is ‘indivisible’ amid NI Protocol row

Macron said Johnson "knew very well" at the time that there would have to be checks on goods entering Northern Ireland when he signed the protocol.

Macron continued: "Full respect of sovereignty in Northern Ireland cannot mean not respecting the sovereignty of 27 member states [of the EU] who have created a single market with free movement but outside border controls.

"You cannot blame the EU for your own incoherence."

Saying that everyone should "calm down" Macron said he wants to move on with the agreement that was decided a few months ago and leaders should stop "looking for arguments each morning".

The speech was shared by SNP MP Pete Wishart who slammed Johnson's recent behaviour.

Wishart tweeted: "This is spot on. Johnson rubbished and tore up Teresa [sic] May’s backstop to win a UK election based on populism. But seemingly the protocol that he designed is all the fault of the French because he didn’t know what he was signing!"