Upset Austrian MEP writes Brexit 'liar' poem

An Austrian MEP has written a poem about Brexit in which he criticises "liars" of the Leave campaign and former Prime Minister David Cameron.

Part of Eugen Freund's poem was first broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, which aired live from Brussels on Thursday.

This is the second poem Mr Freund has written about Brexit - his first went viral on social media.

UKIP, also criticised in the work, dismissed the poem as "doggerel verse".

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Mr Freund, who is a member of the Social Democratic Party, said he cried on Wednesday when Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50, which formally started the firing gun on Brexit negotiations.

'Separate deal'

He said: "I have never had such an emotional day as the one yesterday when two or three of the British colleagues really brought us to tears.

"They were [also] in tears, and we were all very emotional, and we stood up and gave them standing ovations.

"This is something I've never seen before - politicians crying."

He said the people most affected by divorce were children and that we were all the "children of Europe".

He also said he was sympathetic to the situation that Scotland had found itself in, but added: "Scotland is still part of the UK and so it cannot negotiate a separate deal, I don't see how that could happen."

After his first poem about Brexit, Mr Freund was invited onto the US late night chat show hosted by John Oliver.

The MEP admitted his first creation had "for an MEP" certainly made him a "sensation", and so he decided to write another to tie in with the triggering of Article 50.

The second poem is simply entitled The Sequel.

A UKIP spokesman added: "To see a foreign politician recanting doggerel verse is as Dr Johnson put it, 'like a dog walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all'."