Boris Johnson briefly spoke French to the nation as he faced accusations his lockdown communications were too vague.
The Prime Minister said a phrase in French as he addressed the nation, adding “I’m sure everybody knows” what it meant.
Pooja in Solihull had just moments before asked the Prime Minister why new instructions on who could get to work are “so vague.”
He replied: “we’ve had to make a big, big change in our lives over the last couple of months” and pointed to the clarity of the old stay at home messaging.
He said: “It’s when you come to take small steps back to normality, as we are now, that clearly the message becomes finer, more complicated.”
When questioned further about the government’s communications, Mr Johnson added: “For those who think that the stay alert is not the right message, I think it is absolutely the right message for our country now.”
The PM then said he was “interested” to see that the French government has chosen a slogan similar to ‘stay alert’ for their own messaging.
After quoting it in French, he added: “Which is, as I’m sure everybody knows, is roughly the same sort of thing as our message and I think it’s the right way to go.”
The reactions to the PM addressing the nation in another tongue were largely of confusion and mirth.
Twitter user Wayne wrote: “I don’t know what it means, I don’t speak French.”
Sophie Chiaka tweeted: "When he started speaking french the sign language guy said you deaf people are on your own now."
The phrase was ‘sauvez des vies restez prudent’ which translates as stay alert, save lives.
