Brexit: Furious EU chiefs say Theresa May dinner leaks intended to 'undermine' Brussels, in unprecedented statement

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The European Commission has accused “some people” of leaking an account of Theresa May’s dinner with commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to undermine the EU’s position on Brexit talks.

In an unprecedented move, commission chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas broke the body’s silence and told reporters in Brussels that other people had their “own political agendas” for leaking the claims that Ms May had “begged” Mr Juncker for help on Brexit.

He urged the unnamed party to “leave us alone” after the unnamed source told a German newspaper that the PM looked like “someone who can’t sleep a wink” at the meeting.

Downing Street has entirely declined to comment on the affair, which is the second leak of a private dinner between the two leaders in as many months.

“Normally we do not comment on leaks, but today I will. Some people like to point at us to serve their own political agendas, their own political priorities, or even to undermine our negotiating position,” the commission spokesperson said.

“We would appreciate if these people would leave us alone, we have lots of work and no time for gossip.

“I have to be very clear that President Juncker would never have used the words attributed to him and never would have said anything like this. We have never been punitive on Brexit, we have said at all levels and on many occasions that we are working for a fair deal.”

The commission spokesperson would not be drawn on who he thought had leaked the details of the two-party dinner between Ms May and Mr Juncker.

“Why don’t you have a BBC investigation out for this? I stated the position of the institution very clearly, no time for gossip,” he told a BBC reporter who asked a follow-up question about who might have been behind the report.

Speaking later in the day Mr Juncker himself told the BBC that the reports were not true and that he had not leaked them.

“I’m really surprised, if not shocked, about what has been written in the German press, and of course repeated by the British press. Nothing is true in all of this,” he said.

“I had an excellent working dinner with Theresa May, she was in good shape, she was not tired, she was fighting, as is her duty, so for me everything was OK.”

He added that pleading for help was “not the style of British prime ministers”.

After the report emerged, Ms May’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy, who resigned from his position after the disastrous election result, had accused his old opposite number in Mr Juncker’s office of leaking details of the dinner last week.

“After constructive council meeting, Selmayr does this. Reminder some in Brussels want no deal or a punitive one,” said Mr Timothy – referring to Mr Juncker’s chief of staff, Martin Selmayr.

The account to the German newspaper is the latest leak blamed on Mr Selmayr, a German from Angela Merkel’s political party who ran Mr Juncker’s campaign for the commission presidency.

The CDU-aligned aide was also accused of leaking details to the same paper about an April meeting between Ms May and Mr Juncker in Downing Street, which the commission President was said to have left “10 times more sceptical” than when he arrived.

But Mr Selmayr accused Mr Timothy of spreading “false” claims and insisted that Brussels did not want to weaken the Prime Minister’s position. In his response he suggested there were some people who had an interest in undermining the “constructive” relationship between Ms May and Mr Juncker.