‘Prenez un grip’: Boris Johnson ridiculed over response to France submarine row

Boris Johnson’s latest attempt at speaking another European language has gone as well as you’d expect, with the prime minister being ridiculed for his French retort to criticism over the new UK, US and Australian partnership.

The pact, often referred to as AUKUS, has sparked outrage in France, after a submarine deal with Australia was dropped in favour of the new security arrangement.

France’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian dubbed the move as “a stab in the back”, accused Oz of “lies and duplicity”.

However, standing outside the US Capitol building, Johnson brushed aside the complaints, telling the media: “I just think it’s time for some of our dearest friends around the world to ‘prenez un grip’ about all this and ‘donnez-moi un break’, because this is fundamentally a great step forward for global security.”

If the prime minister’s remarks have left you thinking “je ne comprends pas”, then you’re not the only one.

While it’s clear that the prime minister was trying to say “get a grip” and “give me a break”, the comments have been mocked by Twitter users, with some questioning if the sentence is actually grammatically correct.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter, ‘The Viral Democracy’

Others have pointed out that ‘grip’ is incredibly similar to the French word, ‘grippe’ – which translates to ‘flu’.

Not the best thing to utter during a pandemic, Boris.

We can’t help but wonder if Boris should take Girls Aloud’s advice, and if you can’t speak French, you should let the funky music do the talking…

It would certainly be a lot more entertaining than this gaffe.