May unleashes fire at Europe
Keep out of our election, angry PM tells Brussels with accusation of plot to undermine Brexit talks
THERESA MAY cast herself in the role of Britain’s new Iron Lady yesterday with a blistering attack on the EU for trying to interfere in the General Election and “run over us” in Brexit talks.
The Prime Minister accused European politicians and officials of plotting to “deliberately affect” the result of next month’s poll by issuing threats against Britain. She said bureaucrats had misrepresented the UK’s position on Brexit, adding that some of them “do not want these talks to succeed”.
On a day in which the gloves came off in Mrs May’s negotations with Brussels over the Brexit deal, she stood outside the door of Number 10 and invoked the spirit of Margaret Thatcher in her battle with those who “do not want Britain to prosper”.
She was speaking hours after Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, had told Britain to pay an “incontestable” Brexit divorce bill of up to £92 billion (€100 billion) – double the previous estimate – or face being taken to court. Mrs May spoke in measured but forceful tones that hinted at an underlying anger that has been building since a highly partial account of her meeting with Mr Barnier and JeanClaude Juncker last week was leaked to a German newspaper.
Since that meeting, she has been criticised, mocked and briefed against by senior figures in the EU. She had initially dismissed the reports as “Brussels gossip” but could contain herself no longer after Mr Barnier’s browbeat- ing comments. Although she was careful not to accuse anyone by name, her speech was clearly aimed at Angela Merkel, who said last week Britain had “illusions” about the outcome of Brexit, as well as Mr Barnier, European Commission president Mr Juncker and Mr Juncker’s chief of staff Martin Selmayr, the man accused of leaking damaging reports to the German press. Mrs May’s extraordinary – and unscheduled – speech also took aim at Jeremy Corbyn, telling voters “we will all pay the price” if he became Prime Minister and took over the Brexit talks.
Critics said that while the speech might help win over voters – particularly those who voted Ukip in the last election – attacking Brussels’ most senior figures would make the Brexit negotiations far harder.
Speaking after meeting the Queen to mark the dissolution of 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.” She said she wanted the EU to succeed, but added: “There are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed, who do not want Britain to prosper.”
Mr Selmayr last night appeared to offer Mrs May an olive branch by saying Mr Juncker regarded her as “an impressive woman and a very impressive negotiator” which would be “good for negotiations because we need a very strong negotiator, someone who unites the entire nation behind her”.
However, he added: “Brexit will never become a success, of course, be- cause it is a sad and sorry event, but it can be managed in a professional and pragmatic way.” He also suggested Mr Juncker would only spend half an hour each week on Brexit, giving an insight into where it lies in his priorities.
Mr Barnier had earlier suggested that Britain could be forced through the courts to pay the Brexit bill. However, David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, insisted there was no legal obligation for the UK to pay anything at all.
Germany, France and Poland have insisted extra payments are added to the bill, almost doubling the cost from £50 billion to more than £90 billion. Mr Davis replied: “We will not be paying 100 billion euros... in the walkaway circumstance, there is nothing to be paid.”
Mr Corbyn accused Mrs May of “playing party games with Brexit”, while Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, suggested the Prime Minister had “poisoned” the Brexit talks.
THE EU’s great betrayal started outside Number 10 with a Judas kiss from JeanClaude Juncker, and it was in the same spot, at almost the same hour one week on, that Theresa May’s anger finally boiled over yesterday with the most extraordinary speech of her premiership.
Mr Juncker, president of the European Commission, was welcomed with open arms in Downing Street by Mrs May on April 26, and he had appeared in good spirits when he left later that evening.
Their talks about Brexit, he said, had been “constructive” while his fellow dinner guest Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, described the meeting as “cordial”. There had been time for a few jokes and a friendly chat with Mrs May about her passion for hill-walking, a shared interest with Mr Barnier.
Seven days later, however, Mr Barnier was turning Mrs May’s rambling hobby against her with a hectoring and vaguely sinister allegory about the Brexit talks.
Mountain walkers, he said, had to “learn a certain number of rules”, such as taking one step at a time “because sometimes you are on a steep and rocky path”. Using language akin to a TV mafia villain, he warned that hikers had to beware of “accidents” that might befall them, like falling rocks.
He also insisted that the Brexit “divorce bill” was non-negotiable and that Britain could face “legal” consequences if it did not pay up in full.
It was just the latest in a series of what Mrs May yesterday described as “threats” from EU politicians and officials that had begun the day after that fateful Downing Street dinner.
Mrs May had been joined at that meal by David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, and the Brussels delegation included Martin Selmayr, Mr Juncker’s powerful chief of staff.
The EU delegation was all smiles as they left Number 10, and Mrs May was seen throwing her head back with laughter as Mr Selmayr made a parting joke. Once they got into their limousines, however, the mask dropped. Mr Juncker was quickly on the phone to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accusing Mrs May of “megaphone diplomacy” and of being “deluded” and living in “another galaxy”.
The day after the dinner, Mrs Merkel used a speech to the German parliament to suggest that “some in Great Britain” (translation: Mrs May and Mr Davis) were living under the “illusion” that they could keep the same rights as member states after Brexit.
Mrs May bit her tongue but before the weekend was out the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung ran a lengthy and detailed account of the Downing Street dinner, suggesting that Mr Juncker left Downing Street “10 times more sceptical” about the possibility of a Brexit deal than he had been before, and that Mrs May had told him Britain was not obliged to pay “a penny” of the divorce bill.
Mr Selmayr, who is German, immediately became the prime suspect for the leak. The article painted his boss Mr Juncker as the strong man of the talks, and belittled Mrs May as a naive negotiator. Downing Street insisted it did not “recognise” the account, and Mrs May dismissed it as “gossip” but inside Number 10, the mood was starting to simmer over what was seen as a brazen stitch-up.
There was more to come. Michael Roth, Germany’s finance minister, took to Twitter on Monday to say “the British government must abandon [the] myth that all British will be better off post-Brexit”.
The next day Guy Verhofstadt, lead Brexit negotiator for the European Parliament, mocked Mrs May’s negotiating skills by using her “strong and stable” campaign slogan. He said: “Any Brexit deal requires a strong and stable understanding of the complex issues involved. The clock is ticking – it’s time to get real.”
Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph revealed a plot by EU officials to block an early deal on migrants’ rights and shift the blame on to Mrs May. The only hint of her irritation with Mr Juncker came in a BBC interview when she briefly deviated from her script to say that Mr Juncker would find her “a bloody difficult woman”.
By now Mrs May had formed the opinion that Germany and the EU were trying to influence the election by undermining her, no doubt hoping to reduce her vote and thus weaken her hand. The dam holding back the Prime Minister’s anger finally burst yesterday after Mr Barnier set out the EU’s negotiating position, which appeared to be more a series of orders to Mrs May to step into line.
Mr Barnier said the consequences of Britain leaving without paying would be “explosive”. A landslide victory for Mrs May in the General Election “will not change anything as regards the position and determination of the European Union” and it was “high time” for negotiations to start because “the clock is ticking”.
Then came his final flourish as he smugly patronised the hill-walking Prime Minister by advising her to “learn to put one foot in front of the other”. For Mrs May, enough was enough. As she left for Buckingham Palace, reporters were briefed that she would make an unscheduled speech outside Downing Street.
It would be “punchy”, aides promised. That turned out to be the understatement of the election campaign.
‘He advised the Prime Minister to learn to put one foot in front of the other. Enough was enough’