Jacob Rees-Mogg has laughed off claims from Donald Tusk that Brexiteers are ‘100% responsible’ for the lack of progress in negotiation talks.
European Council president Tusk made the suggestion on Twitter after a barbed exchange with Nigel Farage in Salsbourg, in which Farage claimed the threat of a hard border in Ireland was a ‘red herring’ that would never happen.
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He tweeted: ‘In response to Nigel Farage in EP [European Parliament]: I don’t know what the result of the #Brexit talks is going to be.
‘But I know that it is the Brexiteers who are 100% responsible for bringing back the problem of the Irish border.’
When asked about it on BBC News, Jacob Rees-Mogg said that Tusk was ‘having a joke’.
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He said: ‘That’s simply not true. The backstop of the Irish border is not a question raised by the Brexiteers, it was a question raised by the European Union.
‘It’s hung by the highest order and he knows it is.
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‘I think he’s having a joke. He has these little jokes; do you remember that funny little Instagram picture rather rudely about the Prime Minister?
‘It’s an obscure sense of humour that he’s got.’
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