EU TRYING TO FIX OUR POLL

Prime Minister’s astonishing conspiracy claim dismissed as ‘pure fantasy’

THERESA May was labelled a fantasist after she made a wild claim of a European conspiracy to affect the result of the general election.

The Prime Minister said Britain was the victim of “deliberately timed” acts aimed at meddling in the June 8 poll. Speaking outside No10 yesterday, the Tory leader said “some in Brussels” did not want Brexit talks to succeed. Astonished EU officials rubbished the claims as “pure fantasy” while UK politicians slammed her “irresponsible” and “crude” attack. In an extraordinary broadside moments after she met the Queen to dissolve Parliament, Mrs May said: “Britain’s negotiating position in Europe has been misrepresented in the continental press. “The European Commission’s negotiating stance has hardened. Threats against Britain have been issued by European politicians and officials. All of these acts have been deliberately timed to affect the result of the general election that will take place on June 8.” Mrs May insisted: “We want the EU to succeed. But the events of the last few days have shown that – whatever our wishes, and however reasonable the positions of Europe’s other leaders – there are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed, who do not want Britain to prosper.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Mrs May of using Brexit as a diversion. He said: “By winding up the public confrontation with Brussels, the Prime Minister wants to wrap the Conservative Party in the Union Jack and distract attention from her government’s economic failure and rundown of our public services. But Brexit is too important to be used as a political game in this election.” Open Britain campaigner Chuka Umunna, seeking re-election as a Labour MP, blasted “straightforward, crude electioneering”. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon fumed at an “irresponsible, gratuitous attack”. She said: “Insulting our neighbours simply makes the Brexit mountain much harder to climb.” The PM’S allegations came after a succession of embarrassing leaks to newspapers. German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine published an account of EU Commissioner Jean-claude Juncker and Mrs May’s meal in Downing Street on April 26, which No10 called “constructive”. But, according to the article, Mr Juncker said: “I leave Downing Street 10 times as sceptical as I was before.” And reports yesterday suggested the EU wants Britain to pay €100billion (£84billion) for quitting – double previous estimates. But Brexit Secretary David Davis insisted: “We will not be paying €100billion.” Spain yesterday issued a new warning it could block any Brexit treaty over Gibraltar. A paper setting out Madrid’s stance said any deal must be compatible with Spain’s “territorial claims”. It dubbed Gibraltar a “tax haven” which was undermining Spanish businesses. On the domestic front, senior Tories attacked Mrs May’s plan to slash inner-city schools’ funding. Graham Brady, who chairs the party’s powerful backbench 1922 committee, called for the PM’S new formula to be rewritten. It has been heavily criticised by head teachers who face having to sack staff. Mr Brady said: “It has been obvious since very soon after the draft formula was published that it could not work in that form.” The comments featured on the London Evening Standard front page as Mrs May’s old Tory enemy George Osborne used his second day as editor for another attack. In another blow to the PM, a report by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed health and social care spending is set to fall per head under her plans.