WIREDGOV

Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Hollande and the Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

The Prime Minister took a number of congratulatory calls from European leaders this evening.

The Prime Minister spoke first to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel who phoned from Kyrgyzstan. The German Chancellor congratulated the Prime Minister on her appointment, invited the Prime Minister to visit and said that she hoped to see her at the G20 in September.

They agreed that they wanted to establish a constructive relationship, recognising the importance of close co-operation between the UK and Germany.

President Hollande also called to offer his congratulations and to wish the Prime Minister well in her new role.

They discussed the importance of the bilateral relationship, particularly security and defence co-operation and also the joint work on border controls in Calais.

The Prime Minister offered her best wishes to the President and the people of France for Bastille Day tomorrow and the President invited the Prime Minister to visit Paris.

Finally, the Prime Minister spoke to the Irish Taoiseach who wished her the best of luck and welcomed her commitment to make the United Kingdom a country that works for everyone.

They both agreed that the strong collaboration between our countries should continue and the Taoiseach offered to visit London soon for talks on how they could best work together to achieve this.

On all the phone calls, the Prime Minister emphasised her commitment to delivering the will of the British people to leave the European Union.

The Prime Minister explained that we would need some time to prepare for these negotiations and spoke of her hope that these could be conducted in a constructive and positive spirit.