DON’T TREAT US WITH CONTEMPT!

As EU insults the British people yet again...

BRUSSELS was accused of treating Britain ‘with contempt’ last night after hurling personal insults at David Davis.

In an extraordinary attack, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker suggested the Brexit Secretary was lazy and unstable.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier also questioned Mr Davis’s approach, suggesting he did not appear to view the negotiations as a ‘priority’. The comments – which were made at an EU meeting after the first round of Brexit talks – are the latest in a string of insults apparently designed to destabilise the UK team.

At the weekend, Mr Barnier was criticised for reportedly saying he would teach Britain a lesson if it refused to hand over a massive divorce payment. Mr Juncker’s comments provoked an angry reaction last night.

Tory MP Peter Bone said his outburst was another example of the EU elite treating the UK ‘with contempt’. He added: ‘This is why we have got to leave. They treat us with

contempt – that is what they do. David Davis is one of the most stable and dogged politicians I know, and it is laughable for Juncker, of all people, to say otherwise.

‘It shows they are getting desperate. But every time Juncker opens his mouth like this it makes it easier for us to leave.’ The row came as: Senior figures in Brussels threatened to delay talks on a new trade deal until at least December unless the UK agreed to meet the EU’s extraordinary financial demands;

Eurosceptic Labour MPs accused Jeremy Corbyn of trying to ‘scupper Brexit’ by ordering them to vote against the Government’s flagship Brexit legislation;

Brussels said the UK’s plans for resolving the question of the Northern Ireland border after Brexit were unacceptable and could damage the peace process.

A group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs warned Theresa May against softening her stance on Brexit, saying: ‘We need to make sure we are well and truly out.’

Mr Juncker’s comments emerged as Britain and the EU are locked in a standoff over demands from Brussels for a £90 billion ‘divorce payment’.

Herman van Rompuy, former president of the European Council, criticised the UK for stalling talks on the divorce bill, saying it was delaying progress on a future trade deal. Mr van Rompuy said the prospect of making sufficient progress to move on to trade talks by next month, was ‘in the neighbourhood of zero’.

EU leaders are furious after British lawtions’, yers told them last week that there was little, if any, legal basis to the claim. The criticism of Mr Davis emerged in newly published minutes of a meeting in July.

At a meeting with EU commissioners, Mr Barnier said his British counterpart ‘did not regard his direct involvement in these negotiations as his priority’.

Mr Barnier ‘observed that the United Kingdom had not yet really engaged in the negotiations or spelled out its posi- a record of the meeting said.

Mr Juncker said he also shared ‘concern about the question of the stability and accountability of the UK negotiator and his apparent lack of involvement’.

He urged Mr Barnier to ‘remain firm’ by refusing talks with negotiators who had ‘no political mandate, while fundamental political questions still remained’.

At the meeting, European Commissioners also raised concerns about ‘the British public’s lack of understanding of the financial aspects of the UK’s withdrawal from the Union’, the minutes show.

Mr Barnier rowed back from the comments yesterday, praising the ‘professionalism’ of the UK team. But the European Commission declined to say whether Mr Juncker still maintained his assessment of Mr Davis.

Ministers believe Mr Juncker is bent on punishing Britain for daring to vote to leave the EU.

Mr Davis declined to be drawn into the row last night. A spokesman said: ‘These are clearly out-of-date comments and it is abundantly clear that the Secretary of State has been fully engaged and involved throughout the negotiations, in the same way as Mr Barnier.

‘I’d point you to Mr Barnier’s comments today in which he pointed to the professionalism and competence of the whole UK team.’

But Tory MP Charlie Elphicke accused the EU of using ‘bar-room insults’ in a ‘desperate’ bid to knock Brexit off course.

‘It’s clear the British Government seizing the initiative in the negotiations is causing frustration in Brussels,’ he said.

‘These bar-room insults show how weak and defensive they have become. The clock is ticking – there are less than 600 days to go. They need to get serious about the negotiations.’

It came as Theresa May confirmed that she had accepted an invitation to address the European Parliament – but MEPs expressed disquiet that she is unwilling to speak in front of all of them.

Instead, she will address the Conference of Presidents, made up of the Parliament’s president Antonio Tajani and political group leaders. Ukip MEP Nigel Farage said the decision was a ‘mistake’, while veteran German MEP Elmar Brok said: ‘Why make enemies? It’s ridiculous.’

Mrs May’s official spokesman said a date was being arranged for the visit, adding: adding: ‘The PM has confirmed to President Tajani that she would be happy to address the Conference of Presidents.’

IF reports are to be believed, the president of the European Commission sips cognac for breakfast and, after a liquid lunch, can barely walk in a straight line. So Jean- Claude Juncker has some gall to accuse David Davis of lacking ‘stability’.

According to official minutes this preening small-town bureaucrat, who was elected by no one, also accused elected MP Mr Davis of lacking ‘accountability’. For good measure, at the same meeting officials claimed the British public ‘don’t understand the financial aspects’ of Brexit.

And where were these risible comments made? In a Commission meeting held – as always – behind closed doors. If Mr Juncker wants to know about a lack of accountability, he should examine how both the European Court of Justice and the Commission are unelected and accountable to no one.

If this was a single incident, it might be dismissed as Mr Juncker’s deranged postprandial ramblings. But not for the first time he and his fellow eurocrats are indulging in yah-boo insults aimed at Britain and her elected politicians.

Only yesterday, former EU president Herman Van Rompuy arrogantly declared there is no way trade talks will begin until Britain agrees to pay a £50billion bill.

But then, from the start, Mr Davis and Theresa May have approached the talks like grown-ups in a spirit of optimism – and faced childish threats and abuse in return.

In fact, the bad-mouthing began even before the formal discussions. In May, the Prime Minister invited Mr Juncker to dinner in No 10 and afterwards both sides issued a statement calling it ‘constructive’.

Then Mr Juncker ordered a poisonous briefing to a German newspaper describing Mrs May as ‘deluded’ and ‘living in another galaxy’. Is that any way to build trust?

Only last week, bullying chief negotiator Michel Barnier outrageously claimed he wants to use Brexit to ‘teach the British people what leaving the EU means’. He later claimed his words were ‘taken out of context’ but as they were reported by the eurofanatic BBC, the Mail concludes they were entirely accurate.

Mr Juncker is wrong if he thinks Mr Davis will take his comments as anything other than a sign Britain is gaining the upper hand. The Commission are behaving like fools: the more they treat the British people with such arrogant contempt the more they will harden the resolve of the majority who voted for Brexit and, we suspect, an increasing number of Remainers.

Meanwhile in Parliament, Labour’s betrayal of its own Brexit voters is becoming clearer by the day. Not only is Jeremy Corbyn ordering his MPs to vote against the EU Withdrawal Bill, he also wants to keep free movement for years, to adopt the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and to carry on swallowing all EU environmental and employment laws. How is that respecting the referendum result?

Then there’s Britain’s business leaders, who rallied behind Project Fear but refuse to get behind the Government on Brexit. Do they see in Mr Corbyn the chance to keep inflating their profits off the back of cheap EU labour? If so they are playing a dangerous game, because Mr Corbyn and his Marxist friends will squeeze their pips if they ever come to power.

As for Brussels, is it too much to hope for less contempt and condescension, and more serious debate about a deal that it is in all our interests to negotiate sensibly? THREE weeks ago, the police stood by as 100 travellers rampaged through the seaside town of Cromer in Norfolk. Despite dozens of thefts, criminal damage, assault and even an alleged rape, officers dismissed it as a ‘low-level disturbance’. Now Chief Constable Simon Bailey has apologised, saying the force got its ‘media messages’ wrong – in other words, it got the spin wrong. Isn’t the truth that, paralysed by political correctness, the police simply failed to uphold the law?