Boris Johnson arrived in Paris on Thursday to meet with Emmanuel Macron, after meeting with the German Chancellor on Wednesday, to try to break the Brexit deadlock. The British Prime Minister has repeatedly called for changes to be made to the backstop mechanism within the withdrawal agreement to ensure a deal can be reached between the UK and the EU. French President Emmanuel Macron stood firm and has said the withdrawal agreement and Irish backstop are "not just technical constraints or legal quibbling" but are "genuine, indispensable guarantees" to preserve stability in Ireland and the integrity of the single market.

As journalists were welcomed to film and take pictures of the two leaders sitting down in a meeting to speak, Mr Macron was seen tapping a table which separated the pair.

The Prime Minister then “jokingly” placed his foot on the furniture, before he quickly put his foot on the floor and waved photographers away, with both leaders laughing.

Posting the video on Twitter, Sky News’ Tom Rayner wrote: “WATCH: Here’s the Reuters video of Boris Johnson putting his foot on the Elysee furniture.

“It seems President Macron was making small talk suggesting the table would work equally well as a footstool should the PM want to recline, which Johnson then jokingly does.”

But the decision to place his foot on the table had many online commentators to question whether Mr Johnson had been “tricked” by the French President.

One wrote: “And Macron got the photo he wanted and our Prime Minister is once again the fool.”

Another added: “The oaf Johnson got tricked into behaving like an oaf in front of photographers. Only other oafs will think Johnson won this one.”

A third said: “He fell for it! And the picture looks just as we expect from this clown 'cos he has form for being a fool.”



Another even claimed the French President “knew exactly what he was doing”, before adding the word: “Clever”.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mrs Merkel, the German Chancellor, hinted Mr Johnson had 30 days to try to overcome the Northern Ireland border issue.

But, on Thursday, Mr Macron said the withdrawal agreement and Irish backstop are "not just technical constraints or legal quibbling" but are "genuine, indispensable guarantees" to preserve stability in Ireland.

He said the Brussels bloc had "always said that it was available to discuss, depending on the wishes of the UK, our future relationship".

The two leaders were speaking ahead of their formal talks at the Elysee.

Mr Johnson said that he wanted a Brexit that was as "pain-free as possible" whether or not there was a deal.

He said: ”A great deal of work has already been done to ensure that the transition on October 31 is as smooth as it possibly can be and so there are already agreements on aviation, on financial services, many other sectors.”

The two leaders met for the first time ahead of the G7 summit this weekend.