YES, JUNCKER INSULTED HER BUT MAY’S REAL FOES ARE MACRON AND VARADKAR
THERESA MAY won plaudits over her confrontation with EU President Jean-Claude Juncker last week, but privately she is also seething with French leader Emmanuel Macron and Ireland’s Leo Varadkar.
Mrs May holds the French President personally responsible for ‘trashing’ her Brexit deal after he threatened to use the controversial Northern Irish backstop to extract concessions from Britain over fishing.
His comments sparked uproar among MPs and were in direct contrast to the agreed ‘script’ to help Mrs May sell the Withdrawal Agreement to the Commons. No10 believe that meant they ‘lost control of the narrative’, turning MPs against the deal. Aides have told Paris of their outrage.
May and Macron had a frosty private meeting on Friday morning in Brussels, just before a visibly furious Mrs May confronted Mr Juncker.
Relations with Mr Varadkar are also cold, with sources claiming Mrs May ‘loathes’ the Irish Taoiseach. The PM is said to have ‘outsourced’ communication with Dublin to her No2, David Lidington, because the relationship is so chilly.