Brexit

EU shouldn't mete out trade punishment over Brexit: Johnson

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday compared any attempt to punish Britain for leaving the European Union to a World War Two escape movie, saying both sides would do better to strike a mutually beneficial trade deal.

Speaking in New Delhi a day after Prime Minister Theresa May laid out the case for a "hard Brexit", in which Britain leaves the European single market, Johnson said attempts to curb free trade cut both ways.

He was answering a question on comments made earlier by an aide to French President Francois Hollande who said Britain should not expect a better trading relationship with Europe once it was outside the common market of 500 million people.

"If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings that anyone chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War Two movie, then I don't think that's the way forward," Johnson answered.