Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has been criticised after she said the "jury was still out" on French President Emmanuel Macron.
Her remark came as she was asked if Mr Macron was a "friend or foe" of the UK at a Tory leadership hustings.
She added that if elected PM she would judge him on "deeds not words".
But Labour's David Lammy accused Ms Truss of "a woeful lack of judgement", saying she had insulted one of "Britain's closest allies".
Ms Truss, widely seen as the clear front-runner to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister, made the remark at the penultimate leadership hustings in Norwich, to loud applause.
Her comment came at the end of the hustings during a series of "quickfire questions" posed by the host, TalkTV's Julia Hartley-Brewer.
When asked the same question Mr Sunak said Mr Macron was a "friend".
One Conservative minister said Ms Truss's comments had "completely undermined our relationship with France", calling her a "faux Thatcher", a reference to the infamously Eurosceptic former Tory prime minister.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62682448