Boris Johnson accepts Jean-Claude Juncker’s invitation to Brussels

The former London mayor tells the European Commission president to come to Britain to ‘inform the debate.’

Boris Johnson accepted Jean-Claude Juncker’s invitation to visit Brussels to discuss the pair’s differing views in the Brexit debate, and offered to return the favor.

The European Commission president said at the G7 meeting in Japan on Thursday that the former London mayor should come and find out “if everything he is telling the British people is in line with reality — I do not think so.”

Johnson responded Thursday, the Guardian reported, by accepting Juncker’s “very imaginative” invitation.

“I would like to extend an invitation to you,” Johnson wrote in an open letter, having earlier told Sky News that his arguments about Brussels leading the U.K. into an “EU superstate” were spot on.

“Many parts of Britain — many families and small businesses — have been damaged by our EU membership,” Johnson wrote in the letter. “It would be wonderful if you could visit some of these places and meet some of those people with me.”

Johnson said a Juncker visit would “help inform the debate and give you a better understanding as you attempt to reform the machinery of the EU.”

Johnson was a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph newspaper in Brussels from 1989 to 1995, specializing in stories about the EU’s bureaucratic excess.

“As you mentioned, I have happy memories of the beautiful city of Brussels and I look forward to seeing you in the near future,” Johnson wrote.