BORIS Johnson has infuriated the president of the the European Commission in what was supposed to have been a conciliatory speech about Brexit.

Jean-Claude Juncker accused the Foreign Secretary of talking "total nonsense" after he said the EU's calculations were driven by a desire "to build a United states of Europe".

Mr Johnson said the EU wanted "an overarching European state" and that British politicians had "always found that ambition very difficult".

The remark, in speech billed as the first in a series setting out the UK Government's "road to Brexit", immediately antagonised one of the key figures on the EU side.

Asked for his reaction, Mr Juncker said: "Some in the British political society are against the truth, pretending that I am a stupid, stubborn federalist, that I am in favour of a European superstate. I am strictly against a European superstate.

"We are not the United States of America, we are the European Union, which is a rich body because we have these 27, or 28, nations. The European Union cannot be built against the European nations, so this is total nonsense."

Mr Johnson had been intended to build bridges with Remain voters.

He said his fellow Brexiters should not "gloat" over the EU referendum result, which he said was a cause for "hope not fear".

He admitted the risked "causing further irritation" and would not "persuade everybody" but added: "I have to try. In the end these are people's feelings and people's feelings matter.

"We must accept that many [Remainers] are actuated by entirely noble sentiments, a real sense of solidarity with our European neighbours and a desire for the UK to succeed.

"Brexit is about re-engaging this country with its global identity and all the energy that can flow from that. I absolutely refuse to accept the suggestion that it is an un-British spasm of bad manners. It's not some great V-sign from the cliffs of Dover, it is the expression of legitimate and natural desire to self govern of the people, by the people, for the people."

He said would be "intolerable and undemocratic" if the UK was subject to EU laws after Brexit - something the EU says must happen during the 21-month transition phase - and said the benefits of the single market and customs union were overrated.

He said: "In a global marketplace where we are trading in products that hadn't been conceived even five years ago, serving markets that were poverty stricken only 20 years ago, it seems extraordinary that the UK should remain lashed to the minute prescriptions of a regional trade block comprising only 6 per cent of humanity - and when it is not possible for us or any EU nation to change those rules on our own."

Former Tory minister Anna Soubry said the speech had been '"pitiful' and "embarrassing".

She told Channel 4 News: "I'm afraid to say that Boris has confirmed my very worst fears about him. I don't think he's a very good foreign secretary.

"He really has hugely lacked the sort of grown up responsible, sensible approach that we expect from one of the most senior members of our cabinet in the approach to Brexit.

"It was actually a pitiful speech. I think a lot of people found it really rather embarrassing."

SNP MP Stephen Gethins said Mr Johnson said the Foreign Secretary was the last person the Tories should be deploying to reassure worried Remain voters.

He said: "Instead of peddling his embarrassing hard Brexit fantasy he should be apologising for the notorious £350m-a-week-for-the-NHS deception for which he was responsible.

"The UK Government's own analysis shows a hard Brexit would be a disaster for Scotland's economy and yet he made clear today the Tories will plough on, no matter the cost.

"Anyone hoping for answers and reassurance from the gaffe-prone Foreign Secretary would have been sorely disappointed. Indeed, we heard more about vacuum cleaners, skiing lessons and the lost island of Doggerland than we did about how the Tories plan to replace the enormous amount of lost trade with the EU that will result of a hard Brexit."

Labour MP Chuka Umunna, of the Open Britain campaign,said the speech was an "exercise in hypocrisy", adding: "We are already a great country, we are already internationalist and we are already global."

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said it revealed the government's intention to "casually cast aside" rights and protections and ignore the benefits of the EU single market.

He said: "Nobody will be fooled or reassured by the Foreign Secretary's empty rhetoric."

LibDem Tom Brake said the speech was mainly about Mr Johnson's ambition to be PM.