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Agence France-Presse

British politicians reacted angrily on Wednesday to European Union leader Donald Tusk after he wondered “what special place in Hell” awaited those who advocated Brexit without a clear plan, calling him a “devilish Euro maniac”.
“Donald Tusk once again shows his contempt for the 17.4 million people who voted to escape the corruption of the EU,” said Sammy Wilson, Brexit spokesman for Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.


“This devilish Euro maniac is doing his best to keep the United Kingdom bound by the chains of EU bureaucracy and control,” he added.
Tusk, President of the European Council, made the comments at a news conference in Brussels, where he was flanked by Irish leader Leo Varadkar.
Tusk mocked British Eurosceptic leaders, some of whom now favour a “no deal” departure.
UK’s May says ‘armed with fresh’ Brexit mandate
“I’ve been wondering what that special place in Hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely,” Tusk said.
Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom and prominent Leave supporter demanded an apology, calling Tusks’s comments “spiteful”.

“I think that what he has said is pretty unacceptable and pretty disgraceful,” she told BBC Radio 4.
“I’m sure that when he reflects on it he may well wish he hadn’t done it.”
Fellow Tory and veteran Eurosceptic Peter Bone said it was a “completely outrageous insult”.
Secret plans for queen if Brexit riots break out in London
“I don’t recall any president insulting members of this House, members of the government and the British people in such a way,” he said.
But anti-Brexit MPs were supportive of Tusks’s comments.
“Sometimes the truth hurts, doesn’t it?” Joanna Cherry, an MP from the Scottish National Party, said in parliament.
Campaign group For our Futures’ Sake said Tusk was “entirely correct”.

The outburst dominated the online editions of Britain’s newspapers, with Brexit-supporting tabloid The Sun leading with the headline “EU’VE LOST IT”, adding that “sneering Donald Tusk has taken an extraordinary dig at Brexiteers”.
The Mail Online carried a picture of Tusk in high spirits with Varadkar after the news conference, underneath the headline “EU President Tusk is caught laughing at the row he will cause”.
Brexit figurehead Jacob Rees-Mogg, a staunch Catholic, questioned Tusk’s theological credentials, saying he was “hardly in the Aquinas class...and he seems to have forgotten the commandment about not bearing false witness”.
Leave supporting Tory MP Simon Clarke said the European Council president’s comment’s “push me towards supporting a clean break and No Deal”.
Prominent Brexit campaigner Douglas Carswell also suggested that Tusk’s comments “will inadvertently nudge things closer towards a clean departure from the EU”.
Gerard Batten, leader of the anti-EU UKIP party, said the comments were a sign that Tusk was “getting overwrought”.
“Mr Tusk has forgotten that in Dante’s Inferno the lowest level in Hell is reserved for traitors. I would remind him that those who want their country governed by a foreign power are traitors,” he added.


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Brexit

EU’s Donald Tusk says there’s a ‘special place in Hell’ for UK Brexiteers who had no plan. They call him spiteful, disgraceful, and a ‘devilish Euro maniac’

EU Council President Donald Tusk gives a statement after a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

epa07329372 Britain's Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom leaves Downing Street after political cabinet in London, Britain 29 January 2019. The House of Commons is set to vote on amendments to British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan in parliament on 29 January. EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL

EU Council President Donald Tusk and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar leave the room after a statement at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 6, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

British Prime Minister Theresa May says she is ‘armed with a fresh’ Brexit mandate

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain January 30, 2019. Photo: Reuters

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip arrive at church near Maidenhead, Britain February 3, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

Queen Elizabeth to be evacuated if Brexit riots break out in London

British soldiers enter a Ministry of Defence building near to New Scotland Yard police headquarters near to the Houses of Parliament in central London on May 24, 2017 after arriving by bus. Britain ordered soldiers to key sites Wednesday and raised the terror alert to maximum after the Manchester concert suicide bombing by a local man of Libyan origin who may have been radicalised in Syria. / AFP PHOTO / Justin TALLIS

There are plans to move the royal family, including Queen Elizabeth, to safe locations away from London if Britain suffers a disruptive departure from the European Union next month. File photo: AFP

EU leaders refuse Brexit plan changes, hitting Theresa May’s hopes for a Parliament-friendly deal hard

EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker (left) and European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier talk during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday. Leaders across the European Union offered a united chorus of “No” on Wednesday to Britain's belated bid to negotiate changes to the Brexit divorce deal so that Prime Minister Theresa May can win the backing of her Parliament. Photo: AP

TOPSHOT - Anti-Brexit activists travel on an old red London Routemaster bus, with EU flags in its windows, as they drive around Westminsters in London on January 29, 2019. - British Prime Minister Theresa May heads into her latest Brexit battle on Tuesday weakened but still determined to get her legacy-defining deal through parliament, as MPs wrestle to take control of the process. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)

A handout photograph released by the UK Parliament shows Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May listening to a question during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons in London on January 30, 2019. - British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday won a mandate from UK lawmakers to try to renegotiate her Brexit deal with Brussels. She is now hoping to unlock the impasse despite Brussels insisting that it will not budge. (Photo by MARK DUFFY / various sources / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - NO USE FOR ENTERTAINMENT, SATIRICAL, ADVERTISING PURPOSES - MANDATORY CREDIT " AFP PHOTO / MARK DUFFY / UK Parliament"

The US-China trade war and Brexit are dealing body blows to already weak global trade

Visitors watch a robot arm putting make-up on a mannequin at the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai on November 9. Weakening import demand in China could spell trouble for world trade. Photo: Xinhua

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Europe

The scornful comment by European Council President Donald Tusk ignited a fierce backlash


The scornful comment by European Council President Donald Tusk ignited a fierce backlash.


European Union

Britain