Employing his hallmark vivid rhetoric on Tuesday, Johnson, Britain's prominent Brexit advocate and former foreign minister, called on British Prime Minister Theresa May to drop her Brexit plan, saying it would "manacle" Britain, Reuters reported.

"What we are trying to do is to negotiate a deal, that's exactly what we are trying to do," a spokesman for the European Commission told a regular news briefing on Wednesday asked about Johnson's comments and whether the EU wanted to enslave Britain.

"It's time to pursue these negotiations and bring them to a good end."