Leo Varadkar has criticised “name-calling” from British politicians after he was described as an “airhead” for his comments about potential flight restrictions in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the pro-Brexit Conservative MP, made the remark after the taoiseach said that flights could be grounded if the UK left the European Union without a deal.

British politicians advocating a clean break from the bloc should realise what it would mean in practice, Mr Varadkar said. “I always think that when people engage in name-calling it’s because they don’t want to engage on substance or facts,” he said.

“The fact is that if there is a no-deal hard Brexit next March, the UK will fall out of the single European sky and lose all