France and Britain would be facing “serious problems” if they could not say whether they were friends or enemies, Emmanuel Macron has said, insisting that for Paris the UK would always be an ally no matter who was running it, writes The Guardian.

The comments came after Liz Truss, the clear favourite to become Britain’s next prime minister, told the penultimate Conservative leadership hustings on Thursday that “the jury is still out” on whether the French president was “friend or foe”.

Asked for his response, Macron, on an official visit to Algeria, said it was “not good to lose your bearings too much”. If he was asked the same question, he said: “I wouldn’t hesitate for a second. France is a friend of the British people”.

If France and Britain “cannot say whether they are friends or enemies - and that is not a neutral term - then we are headed for serious problems”, - the French president said.

Truss told the hustings in Norfolk that as prime minister, she would judge Macron by “deeds, not words”. Macron said the UK remained “a friendly nation” and strong ally for France “regardless of its leaders, and sometimes in spite of its leaders and whatever little mistakes they may make in a speech from a soapbox”.