A senior politician in Germany said the Brexit vote has turned Britain from being “the coolest country in the world” to “one big mess”.

David McAllister expressed anger at Leave campaigners and said that after the referendum, Britain’s standing in the world has dropped overnight. Mr. McAllister is a former Minister President of Lower Saxony and now holds a number of roles in the European Parliament.

The Scottish-born MEP cited the 2012 London Olympics and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth games as highlights for the UK.

Glasgow’s Evening Times reported that Mr. McAllister said: “In 2012 the Olympics were in London. Great Britain was the coolest country on earth.

“The whole world fell in love with Great Britain that year – the fantastic opening and closing show in London, Boris stuck on the wire, it was just fantastic.

“Then 2014, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, not so much interest for Germans but still for the English speaking world, wonderful.

“Then 2016 and the whole country is in a mess. Good God, people in Germany just are saying ‘Oh my God what happened’. And they did it themselves.”

The MEP, who considers himself both German and Scottish, said Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) made him “heartbroken”.

Mr. McAllister, who is tipped as a possible future German Chancellor, said: “I’m not putting the blame on the people who voted to leave but I do blame the leave campaigners, scaremongering people, telling lies and personal attacks.

“Now they’ve just created this awful mess and they are running away from their responsibilities.

“Shakespeare couldn’t have invented this better but It’s not fiction, it’s so sad.”

A close ally of Chancellor Merkel, Mr. McAllister accused Leave campaigners of lying. He slammed Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove for telling voters that Britain could have access to the single market with concessions.

“The Leave campaigners lied to the British people, because they said they could join the single market without having to pay for it or without accepting the freedom of movement of people.”

He warned: “One thing is clear you can only have full access to the single market with all four freedoms of the single market. All four including the free movement of people because the EU is not only about goods, services and capital, it’s about people.”

He said: “This is something where we must be very clear. In is in and out is out.

“This decision means cherry picking is over and done with. There will be no more cherry picking.”