Plot to smear PM
They leak claim that ‘tormented’ May begged for help with Brexit
BRUSSELS bureaucrats last night faced fury from across Europe after they were accused of leaking toxic smears about Theresa May.
Spiteful claims about how the ‘tormented’ Prime Minister ‘begged’ the European Commission’s Jean-Claude Juncker for help at a dinner were planted in a German newspaper.
The damning account dismissed Mrs May as anxious, despondent and with ‘deep circles under her eyes’, sparking tensions between Whitehall and Brussels.
The finger of suspicion immediately fell on Martin Selmayr, Mr Juncker’s chief-of-staff, with the Prime Minister’s former aide Nick Timothy publicly accusing him of being behind the plot. Mr Selmayr furiously denied any involvement, as Commission officials yesterday mounted an extraordinary attempt to dodge blame by suggesting the UK could be responsible.
But last night European capitals, including Berlin, voiced anger as they warned the con- stant leaks from Brussels risked the breakdown of Brexit talks.
One diplomat told the Daily Mail: ‘We are not happy with people talking, it is not the way to move forward, it is not productive, it is not constructive and not helping us to reach agreement with the UK.’
In a further twist, it was claimed last night that at the end of the dinner, which was held in the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels last Monday, Mr Juncker had pointedly declared: ‘Now we won’t have any leaks of this will we Martin?’ The row comes only months after the senior Brussels official – nicknamed ‘the monster’ - was accused of leaking details of a Downing Street dinner between Mrs May and Mr Juncker in June, which also led to a furious fall-out.
In a desperate attempt to prevent another clash, the European Commission yesterday launched a coordinated defence and suggested British officials may have leaked the information to scupper talks. Mr Juncker insisted ‘nothing was true in all of this’ and insisted he was ‘shocked’ by the account of the dinner that appeared in German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The European Commission president said Mrs May ‘was in good shape’ during the meeting that he described as ‘excellent’.
‘She was not tired, she was fighting, as is her duty so everything for me was ok,’ he added.
He also denied claims she had begged for help in finding a breakthrough in Brexit talks during the dinner, insisting this is ‘not the style of British Prime Ministers’.
In a further sign of fears that the leaks could jeopardise relations and reinvigorate calls for a ‘no deal’ outcome, Mr Selmayr posted a number of messages distancing himself from the accusations.
Responding directly to Mr Timothy, who resigned as Mrs May’s chief of staff following June’s General Election, he said: ‘This is false. I know it doesn’t fit your cliche...But Juncker and I have no interest in weakening [the Prime Minister].’
He added: ‘But it seems some have interest in undermining constructive relations. Who...is the real question. The German lawyer, who colleagues call ‘Darth Vader’ due to his use of the dark arts of political control, said the leak was an attempt to ‘frame the EU side and to undermine talks’.
Mr Selmayr was one of only six officials present at the meeting last Monday. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, was also present alongside Brexit Secretary David Davis and Olly Robbins, the UK’s top Brexit official. The detailed account of the dinner was published on Sunday and written by Thomas Gutschker, a journalist who is known to have close links to Mr Juncker’s inner circle.
The journalist was also responsible for a highly-detailed account after the leaders’ previous dinner at Downing Street that revealed sensitive information and claimed Mrs May was ‘delusional’.
Citing anonymous ‘colleagues’ of Mr Juncker, the latest article claimed Mrs May called for concessions from the bloc in return for promises made in her landmark Florence Brexit speech.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith yesterday branded Mr Selmayr ‘the acting President of the European Union’ in the Commons, in reference to his supposed power over Mr Juncker.
But Brussels broke with protocol to suggest a third party was trying to sabotage negotiations, saying: ‘Some people like to point at us to serve their own political agendas, their own political priorities or even to undermine our negotiating position.’ Downing Street refused to be drawn on the allegations yesterday, pointing to a joint statement issued by Mrs May and Mr Juncker after the dinner, which described it as ‘constructive and friendly’.
‘She was fighting, as is her duty’
IT was often said of Margaret Thatcher that she was lucky in her enemies.
Ranting Trotskyites such as Arthur Scargill and Derek Hatton, the hopelessly weak Labour leader Michael Foot and of course Argentina’s ghastly General Galtieri were all so deeply unappealing that the country instinctively rallied to her side in time of strife.
In European Commission president JeanClaude Juncker, Theresa May seems to have found just such an opponent. For if any man epitomises everything that’s so wrong with the Brussels club, it’s him.
One of five unelected EU presidents, he has no democratic mandate yet he struts across the European political stage as if he owns it, wilfully blocking Brexit progress and mocking Mrs May and her team as ‘deluded’, ‘living in another galaxy’ and even ‘unaccountable’.
If anyone should know about being unaccountable, it’s this brandy-loving buffoon.
He and his bullying chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (also unelected) were at it again this week, briefing against Mrs May to a German newspaper following a private dinner in Brussels.
Both men furiously deny being the source of the attack – but since they and Mr Juncker’s spin doctor were the only EU representatives present, their protestations of innocence are less than plausible.
The story portrayed the Prime Minister as an emotional wreck – ‘despondent and discouraged’, unsmiling, exhausted and ‘begging for help’.
But anyone who knows her knows she’s a woman of pride and integrity. She would never beg – and certainly not before a tinpot dictator like Mr Juncker. Indeed, one British guest at the dinner said this portrait of her was ‘patently ridiculous’.
The truth is that while Mrs May is tirelessly seeking the best Brexit deal for Britain and Europe, Mr Juncker is interested only in extracting as much cash from us as he possibly can to help fund his dream of an ever-expanding superstate.
Mrs May has made real concessions over the divorce bill, rights of EU nationals and maintaining a soft Irish border, but has been met with nothing but intransigence and personal abuse.
But this pig-headed approach could spectacularly backfire. Chancellor Merkel is already showing impatience with the deadlock and Germany is said to be working on a ‘comprehensive free trade deal’ with the UK post-Brexit.
And in Britain, Mrs May’s dignity in the face of these petty tyrants will win her many new friends.
As Mrs Thatcher discovered, the British have a pathological loathing of bullies – and will rally behind those who stand up to them.