Blundering Eurocrat Jean-Claude Juncker admits telling tales about Brexit dinner with Theresa May was ‘serious mistake’
European Commission boss delivers a stinging rebuke to his monstrous aide Martin Selmayr after leaks from No10 summit
BLUNDERING Eurocrat Jean-Claude Juncker has admitted telling tales about his Brexit dinner with Theresa May was a “serious mistake”.
The European Commission boss delivered a stinging rebuke to his monstrous aide Martin Selmayr after leaks from No10 summit backfired on the EU.
A report of angry exchanges between the Prime Minister and the Brussels chief were detailed in a , causing huge fallout on both sides of the Channel.
Mr Juncker was alleged to have remarked: “I leave Downing Street ten times as sceptical as I was before.”
But after his shadowy Chief of Staff Mr Selmayr was fingered for the leak, he hit out: “Irrespective of the participants at the dinner… the fact is that it was a serious mistake that parts of the talks were leaked."
The EU leader said that he was not responsible for the leak: “I am very good at being self-critical, but this I do not want to be accused for.”
And he insisted he actually got on "very well"; with Mrs May, who he claimed was "a tough lady."
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The PM also dismissed the account in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, calling rumours of a Brexit bust-up simply “Brussels gossip”.
And Mrs May has since said Mr Juncker will discover that she is a “bloody difficult woman” – a description used by her Tory colleague Ken Clarke.
She said: “During the Conservative Party leadership campaign, I was described by one of my colleagues as a bloody difficult woman.
“And I said at the time the next person to find that out will be Jean-Claude Juncker.”
The PM’s warning came as Scots Tory boss Ruth Davidson also ratcheted up the blazing row by suggesting the commissions boss is a dishonest drunkard.
Ruth Davidson invoked long-standing rumours about a fondness Mr Juncker, who reportedly drinks cognac for Breakfast, has for a drink.
Also casting doubt on his integrity, she said: “The idea that journalists would take tales that Jean Claude Juncker would tell after a good dinner as being an honest narrator is unusual.”