Brexiter Tory MP Mark Francois accuses Airbus boss of 'German bullying'

Conservative MP Mark Francois has attacked a German business leader for saying Brexiteers were "mad" to say his company would never leave the UK.

On Thursday, Tom Enders - who runs Airbus - said his company would have to make "potentially very harmful decisions for the UK" in the event of it leaving the EU with no deal.

And in a video message, he said: “Please don’t listen to the Brexiteers’ madness which asserts that ‘because we have huge plants here we will not move and we will always be here’. They are wrong,”

Appearing on BBC News, Mr Francois - the vice chairman of the European Research Group of Brexiteer Tories - said he would never tell a German MP how to vote in the Bundestag and he wanted Mr Enders to give him the same courtesy.

However, when a BBC correspondent tried to ask a question about next week’s vote on Theresa May's deal, Mr Francois returned to the issue, referring to the “Teutonic arrogance” of the EU and tore up a piece of paper containing Mr Enders' words.

He added: "My father, Reginald Francois, was a D Day veteran. He never submitted to bullying by any German and neither will his son".