Colère of the Sun King: Macron rages as Mayhasa laugh

In December, the image of the EU Council summit was of Theresa May confronting Jean-claude Juncker after he called her “nebulous”.

In March, it was of the Prime Minister having to leave a dinner she was supposed to share with EU leaders so they could come up with their own plan for an initial Brexit delay - after she failed to bring one with her.

Things couldn’t have been more different last night. The image of the summit was May laughing with Angela Merkel at a picture on an ipad showing both leaders addressing their respective parliaments earlier in the day - wearing the same outfit.

For once, it wasn’t the British bringing the tension in Brussels. Rather than being offered a tray in a side room, the Prime Minister

retired to the British ambassador’s residence to enjoy asparagus and lamb with mint sauce. Her staff joked that they would keep a TV screen in their eye line, not to keep up with events back at the summit, but so they didn’t miss the football.

Downing Street learned the lesson of the last disaster, and did their homework. May spoke to or met 11 EU leaders in the two days before yesterday’s summit, and her performance under questioning for an hour was described as “helpful and solid”. At the last summit, one source briefed that she had been “f***ing awful”.

EU leaders didn’t believe her when she claimed cross-party talks with Labour could produce a Brexit deal by the end of June. But most were at least willing to throw the UK a lifeline of a long extension to try avoid a no-deal exit.

This time, it was the French who were sweating.

Facing a difficult political situation at home, Emmanuel Macron had to be seen to stand firm in Brussels. It didn’t matter that May was making the best of a bad job - French sources said Macron wasn’t convinced. He railed in front of the cameras and then on social media, warning fellow EU leaders that Brexit couldn’t distract from his vision of a “European Renaissance”. One diplomatic source said it would be a tough job to “get him down from his tree”.

Brexiteers warned being trapped in the EU would unleash “perfidious Albion on speed”. They can’t have imagined their best ally would be the hated French.