Boris Johnson backed by Theresa May amid domestic and overseas criticism

Theresa May has full confidence in Boris Johnson, Downing Street said as the Foreign Secretary came under fire from critics at home and abroad.

Number 10 said the Prime Minister had a good relationship with the Foreign Secretary, in response to anonymous briefings saying he was viewed as a “clown” and a “joke” in capitals around the world.

Meanwhile, a senior German politician described Mr Johnson’s approach to European politics as “not very clever” but said the Foreign Secretary was beginning to recognise that “big words don’t help”.

A scathing column in The Times claimed that diplomatic sources believe that officials at Donald Trump’s White House “don’t want to go anywhere near Boris because they think he’s a joke”.

An unnamed minister told the newspaper: “It’s worse in Europe. There is not a single foreign minister there who takes him seriously. They think he’s a clown who can never resist a gag.”

Asked about a claim in The Times that the intelligence agencies were nervous about giving Mr Johnson sensitive material, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “I’m not going to comment on a column in a newspaper.

“But the Prime Minister meets the Foreign Secretary regularly and they have a good relationship.”

Asked if the Prime Minister had full confidence in Mr Johnson and thought he was doing a good job, the spokeswoman simply stated: “Yes.”

Pressed on whether she believed he had the confidence of his European counterparts, the spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister has a good relationship with Boris Johnson, has full confidence in him and and he’s doing a good job.”

Michael Fuchs, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, suggested that Mr Johnson had calmed down in recent weeks.

Dr Fuchs, the deputy parliamentary leader of Mrs Merkel’s CDU Party, told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “It was not very clever from him, the way he handled Europe or European negotiators at the beginning, but I have a feeling that in the last couple of weeks he was rather calm, we didn’t hear much from him, so maybe he thought it over and he has to come back to the negotiating table, because it’s a very difficult process and big words don’t help.”