UK blames Germans for BAE-EADS debacle George Osborne has blamed Germany for the collapse of merger talks between BAE Systems and EADS, inflaming an already strained relationship between Berlin and London. The UK chancellor of the exchequer said talks to create a Europe-wide defence and aviation group had been worth pursuing. "We have been a bit disappointed, primarily by Germany's attitude, which in effect vetoed the deal," Mr Osborne said. British officials and ministers have, in private, blamed Berlin for much of the failure of the takeover talks but Mr Osborne is the first to say this in public. His criticism puts more pressure on a fraught relationship.Germany has been disappointed by the UK's unwillingness to contribute to eurozone rescue efforts and frequently annoyed by London's exhortations to members of the currency bloc to do more. After the BAE-EADS talks collapsed on Tuesday, Berlin officials insisted that Germany was not to blame. That was despite a "curt" phone call from Angela Merkel, German chancellor, to François Hollande, France's president, on Tuesday morning which has been widely seen as the curtain call for the talks. Germany insists that France and the UK never resolved their dispute over the size of the French state shareholding since news of the merger plan leaked in mid-September. Among other hurdles were shareholders" doubts. These include Invesco Perpetual, owner of 13 per cent of BAE's shares, which issued a statement on Monday criticising the deal. It is clear that Berlin expressed increasing resistance towards the deal in the final hours before Wednesday's takeover deadline. Germany's politicians and officials had become concerned about German jobs if the defence business were run from London and civil aircraft from Toulouse. The UK's official position is that the deal was never a "necessity" but was worth exploring. "It is not that we were committed to the deal, we just thought it worth discussing," Mr Osborne said, talking to reporters at the British embassy in Tokyo on Friday. Relations between Germany and Britain have been difficult since December, when David Cameron, UK prime minister, used his country's veto against eurozone integration, a gesture seen in Berlin as an exercise in showboating. His call for a two-tier EU budget, enabling London to pay less, has further annoyed the Germans. Berlin refused to be drawn into public mudslinging. "The German government has said what it wants to say." it said. In an ironic twist some eurosceptic MPs from Mr Osborne's Conservative party hailed the German position. Bernard Jenkin said the UK should "take a lesson" from Ms Merkel's determination to block the deal.