British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday accused European Union officials of trying to influence the U.K. elections, ratcheting up tensions with Brussels over her country’s departure from the bloc.

Just hours after the EU unveiled its plan for Brexit talks, which delays discussion on issues like trade that are so dear to Britain, May said that “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 that will take place on 8 June,” she told reporters outside 10 Downing Street, in a speech aimed at rallying support for her Conservative Party ahead of next month’s polls.

May’s comments follow leaked comments in the British and European press suggesting the EU thinks Britain is not facing reality about the conditions of its EU exit and the complexity of the negotiations ahead.

“The events of the last few days have shown that — whatever our wishes, and however reasonable the positions of Europe’s other leaders — there are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed,” she said.

The head of the EU’s executive Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, expressed regret that details of his private dinner with May last week had made the news.

A German news report said that Juncker left the meeting saying he was “10 times more skeptical than I was before” that negotiations will succeed. May dismissed the report as “Brussels gossip.”

May also vowed Tuesday to be a “bloody difficult woman” in Brexit talks.

Juncker said: “I have noted that she is a tough lady.”

Earlier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier insisted that Britain’s accounts must be settled before any talks on its future trade relationship with the EU can take place, as he warned that time is running out to seal a deal by 2019.

Unveiling the Commission’s negotiating mandate for Britain’s departure, Barnier said he was not hostile to Britain and the bloc did not want to punish it for leaving — but “we have to settle the account, not more not less.”

The amount London owes the EU has become one of the most contentious subjects in the Brexit process, with some reports estimating it could climb to as much as 100 billion euros ($109 billion) — a figure that Britain has flatly rejected paying.

U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis told ITV that Britain “will meet our international obligations,” but added: “We will not be paying 100 billion.”

Davis also dismissed reports the EU could bar May from Brexit discussions at future heads of state and government meetings.

This is the first time a member has ever left the EU, so these negotiations are taking the Europeans into uncharted waters. The process is unprecedented and complicated, and combined with fresh delays caused by the snap elections in Britain, is raising tensions between London and the 27 nations that will remain in the EU.

Barnier did not specify how much Britain should pay, but his negotiating mandate said it should cover budget payments, the cost of ending Britain’s membership of any EU institution including banks, and the bill for relocating any EU agencies on its territory. London must also pay in euros rather than pounds, meaning that it should bear the currency exchange costs.

The European Parliament’s Brexit point man, Guy Verhofstadt, also declined to go into numbers. He said the parties must first agree on the “accounting principles” from which the bill will be determined.

“We cannot ask to the 27 remaining members to pay the bill for the departure of a country,” he said. As in any divorce, he added, “you can’t just say ‘My partner will take all the burden.“’

Money aside, the top priority of the talks is how to handle the rights of some 3 million citizens from the 27 nations living in Britain and up to 2 million Britons residing on the continent. All face massive uncertainty on such issues as health benefits, pensions, taxes, employment and education.

Another key aim is to keep people and goods moving smoothly across the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and EU member Ireland.

Under the negotiating mandate, EU states would have to approve progress on these and other immediate exit issues before Barnier can start negotiating the outline of the bloc’s future relations with Britain after it leaves.

Some British politicians, including May, have said walking away would be better than a bad deal, and Barnier conceded that the EU has planned for such a contingency.

“We are prepared for all options,” he said. “But the option I am working on is getting an agreement.”</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption May on being "bloody difficult" and "Brussels gossip"

Theresa May says she will be a "bloody difficult woman" towards European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker during Brexit talks.

The PM revived a line used during her Tory leadership campaign to respond to claims the two clashed over dinner.

She also declined to commit to settling the issue of expats' rights by June.

EU sources claim UK misunderstanding of the talks process, and ignorance about how Brussels works, could lead to no deal being agreed on the UK's exit.

According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, the prime minister and Mr Juncker clashed last Wednesday at Downing Street over Mrs May's desire to make Brexit "a success" and whether the issue of protecting the rights of expat UK and EU nationals could be agreed as early as June.

Speaking to BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Mrs May said there were a lot of similarities and common ground in the two sides' positions.

She added: "But look, I think what we've seen recently is that at times these negotiations are going to be tough.

"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."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption In full: Theresa May speaks to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg

The "bloody difficult" quote came from former Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke, who was recorded discussing her after a TV interview last year.

Asked about the German newspaper report, Mrs May said: "I don't recall the account that has been given of the meeting that took place, I think that a lot of this is Brussels gossip."

But she said that the talks would be tough and would involve either her or Jeremy Corbyn lining up for the UK against the other 27 EU leaders.

Analysis by BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg

Theresa May's comment is revealing about her strength, and also her weakness. No political leader wants to be seen to be pushed around. When the UK talked tough as a member of the EU the others had no choice but to listen.

But now the UK is on the way out, the incentives for the others to pay attention - let alone do our bidding - is very different.

Refusing to be pushed around is one thing, refusing to show any sign of compromise or listen quite another.

Read more from Laura

Pressed on whether she did believe the issue of the rights of EU nationals in the UK - and Britons abroad - could be settled in June, she said: "I've always said that I want this to be an issue that we address at an early stage."

"I've always said that there are complexities to this issue and lots of details that will need to be agreed. What people want to know is to have some reassurance about their future. I believe we can give that at an early stage. I've got the will to do this," she added.

She also said she would have "no intention of doing anything other" than serving a full term until 2022 if she wins the 8 June general election.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Brussels and Downing Street sources gave contrasting accounts of Jean-Claude Juncker's meeting with Theresa May

Opposition parties have accused the Tories of pursuing a "hard Brexit" strategy, with the PM insisting no deal is better than a bad one and planning to withdraw the UK from the EU single market.

The first edition of the London Evening Standard published under the editorship of ex-chancellor George Osborne was headlined "Brussels twists knife on Brexit", with an editorial warning the PM against seeking a "blank cheque" from the EU.

Launching his party's Brexit strategy, ex-Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said Mrs May had "chosen to pursue the most extreme and damaging form" of EU departure.

He said his party would offer another EU referendum in which it would campaign to Remain.

Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning</s>It’s a glorious British tradition — the party leader, humbled by an ordinary member of the public in the face of the world's press. Tony Blair faced it, as did Gordon Brown and David Cameron . On Wednesday, it was the turn of Tim Farron of the Liberal Democrats, as he came face-to-face with Malcolm Baker on a campaign stop in Oxfordshire, just northwest of London.

“I knew what I was voting for!” shouted the irate pensioner, incensed at anti-Brexit types like Farron claiming voters like him were ignorant of the referendum's true import. The Liberal Democrats, traditionally Britain's third party, favor the softest possible split from the E.U., and would offer a second referendum on the terms of the deal .

“Have you got grandchildren?” Farron asked, perhaps emboldened by the prospect of exposure in the evening news. “Are you proud that they will inherit a poorer, less powerful, less secure country?”

“I’m proud that they are going to be coming out of Europe and that we will have our own destiny,” replied Baker. Turning to the cameras surrounding them, the 65-year-old finished by stating his voter preference in the June 8 vote. “I’ve always voted Labour,” he shouted, “but I’ll be voting for Theresa May.”

Not "the Conservative Party," not "the Tories." He will be voting for Theresa May.

In fact, Malcolm will probably be voting for Nicola Blackwood in next month’s general election (if he’s true to his word). She is the Conservative candidate for the local constituency, and voters in Britain do not cast their ballots for a leader, but for a parliament.

But this year, the Conservative Party is trying to change that. Tory campaign teams are being told to emphasize the Prime Minister’s name over the party in literature and in speeches . They are eager — desperate, in fact — for this vote to be a referendum on leadership.

Accordingly, it’s unfolding a little like a presidential contest. Just like Hillary Clinton, May has been unwilling to give the media access . In Cornwall, England’s southernmost county, local reporters claimed to have been shut in a room while May observed a factory. There was no risk of an unscheduled brush with ordinary folk; this PM's not for humbling.

Later on Wednesday, May took a leaf out of President Donald Trump’s campaign playbook with an astonishing broadside against her chief rival. No, not Jeremy Corbyn (though she did deign to mention the hapless Labour leader she is leading in the polls by as much as 20 points). The faceless European bureaucracy is May’s true opponent in this election, or so she’d like voters to think, and she took a swing at it.

In remarks delivered outside her official residence at 10 Downing Street, May flatly accused European Union officials of attempting to influence the election with “threats” against Britain . "Britain’s negotiating position in Europe has been misrepresented in the continental press," she said. " 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."

This all stemmed from a dinner last week with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, in which the two sides had discussed their negotiating positions in a supposedly civil environment. The European side quickly leaked messy details of the meeting to German media , claiming May had shown herself to be ill-informed and ill-prepared for the negotiations.

The bureaucrats in Brussels, where the E.U. is headquartered, then followed up with a press conference on Wednesday where they insisted Britain must agree to pay up what it still owes to the E.U. in terms of budget commitments before striking out on its own. According to the Financial Times , the demand could be as much as $100 billion .

Just like her friend in the White House, May decided to forgo leaks and take her message straight to the people. It was an extraordinary move, no doubt intended to seal the impression in voters’ minds that May is a fearless leader willing to stand up to the European enemy. Tomorrow’s right-wing tabloids will surely bang that drum relentlessly.

Perhaps the Prime Minister feels the bigger her personal mandate, the more influence she will have in negotiations with the E.U. But is that really worth getting Brexit talks off on such a poor footing?

The U.K. has a very poor hand coming into the negotiations. Success depends on convincing the 27 remaining countries within the E.U. that a Britain outside the E.U. can be as strong an ally and trading partner as within. If talks collapse, it is Britain who stands to plummet out of the bloc and face the prospect of higher tariffs and stricter quotas under WTO trade rules .

The meaning of this general election is clear: May wants a landslide that would confirm her place as the U.K’s most powerful prime minister in a generation. But it’s not clear those powers would be much use on the playing field in Brussels.

Unless Malcolm Baker is a whiz at trade diplomacy , he and other converts like him may not be much use to May in the longer war ahead.</s>It is lucky for Theresa May that the outcome of her snap general election seems to be certain because, judging by leaked accounts of a Downing Street dinner she held for Brexit negotiators, the outcome of the U.K.’s impending divorce with the European Union is riddled with uncertainty and, now, animosity. The evening began amicably, with May pictured warmly greeting the European commission’s president Jean-Claude Junker. The harmony didn’t last long. Post-dinner, Junker apparently declared himself “ten times more skeptical” about the outcome of the impending talks suggesting that, maybe, their stances were so irrevocably different, that May didn’t need to show up to the talks at all.

Over-dinner disagreements were inevitable, but the discussion seemed to veer beyond just debate, and into starkly different interpretations of reality. May allegedly suggested that the rights of the three million Europeans living in the U.K. could be conveniently agreed upon by the end of June, just a couple of weeks after the upcoming election. “I think you're underestimating that, Theresa,” Junker reportedly retorted, bemused. The talk turned to money, with May proposing that Britain’s hotly-discussed Brexit bill amounted to $0; the E.U. side estimate the British owe them somewhere in the region of $60 billion. That’s a big difference to make up through bartering. The clashing continued, with Junker reminding May that the E.U. is not a golf club, and producing a copies of both Croatia’s accession treaty and the recently agreed 2,000 page-long Canadian free trade deal in an attempt to impress just how complex the negotiations are set to be.

According to the leaked accounts, Juncker was left so frustrated that he needed a helpline, and phoned a friend, calling German chancellor Angela Merkel, to tell her that Theresa May is currently inhabiting a parallel universe. Merkel, who was about to make a speech, quickly threaded it with a threat to the galactic May. “I have the feeling some people in Great Britain still have illusions,” she said. May's team have responded to the damning reports of the dinner with a terse light-heartedness, dismissing them as mere Brussels gossip. “But it also shows that actually at times these negotiations are going to be tough,” the prime minister added, before drumming on her well-beaten trump-card: ”in order to get the best deal for Britain we need to ensure that we’ve got that strong and stable leadership going into those negotiations.” May’s strong and stable leadership teeters on the verge of the Brexit negotiations, which are a gaping abyss of the unknown. If she continue to stick, blinkered, to her party-line of a cheap and cheerful divorce, the E.U., who have been unfalteringly clear and concise in their own, divergent, vision, may have to fiercely show May what their vision of strong and stable leadership really means.

Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister, has accused May of treating the European leaders she needs to strike a deal with as if they are civil servants she can “bark instructions at.” In his first speech of the election campaign, the Liberal Democrat was decidedly unsympathetic about the already-notorious Downing Street Dinner. “I remember [she]—or rather the hitmen and hitwomen in her office—used to leak furiously when I was in coalition if they didn’t like something,” he said, his tone laced faintly with glee.

Tim Farron, now-leader of the Lib Dems, is not even bothering to deny the impending, encompassing arrival of Theresa May's strong and stable leadership, arguing that the only possible option of dissent available is to provide strong and stable opposition. “Let’s not pretend the Prime Minister’s chosen this election for any other reason than a cold, calculated desire to do what is right for the Conservative Party, not for the country,” he told the BBC. “We all know it's the truth that the Prime Minister is heading for a colossal coronation on June 8.”

The Johnson family are monopolizing Brexit and the British headlines, cleanly covering all aspects of the political debate. Boris Johnson, architect and flop-haired figurehead of Brexit, is fielding a familial mutiny. His Remainer sister Rachel has joined the Liberal Democrats to help fight a hard Brexit. She has not been reticent in her disgust at her brother's behavior. “What an astonishing, upsetting, stunning week it has been, a stinging reminder that no politician should ever ask the public a question he doesn’t know the answer to,” she wrote in the Mail on Sunday following the referendum result last June. “Now the snow globe is not just shaken but lying broken on the floor.”

Michael Gove, the Brexiteer and who was promptly sacked by Theresa May after withdrawing his support for Boris Johnson's bid to become prime minister to run his own, has deemed May's decision to fire him as impeccable decision, moving on to suggest that, since May secured his coveted job, she has got all the big judgement calls right. Perhaps he is anticipating another cabinet reshuffle over the summer.

The best of British

British politicians continue to approach the election with all the articulate poise you would expect from the possible leaders of the nation. Boris Johnson hit headlines last week for calling Jeremy Corbyn a “mutton-headed old mugwump.” Now, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson has hit back, describing the Foreign Secretary as a “cheese-headed fopdoodle.” And people seem surprised many of the electorate don't know who to vote for.</s>British Prime Minister Theresa May made her most stinging remark so far against European Union (EU) “bureaucrats” in Brussels, accusing them of trying to ruin Brexit talks.

May was speaking outside 10 Downing Street after meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday on the day British Parliament was dissolved ahead of the June 8 snap general election.

In her briefing, May said the events of the last few days had shown that whatever Britain’s wishes, there were some people in Brussels who did not want Brexit talks to succeed and did not want Britain to prosper, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The European Commission’s negotiating stance has hardened. Threats against Britain have been issued by European politicians and officials,” May said.

The British Prime Minister said these acts had been deliberately timed to affect the result of the upcoming general election.

May said: “Whoever wins on June 8 will face one overriding task, to get the best possible deal for this United Kingdom from Brexit. And in the last few days, we have seen just how tough these talks are likely to be.”

“By contrast, I made clear in my letter to the President of the European Council invoking Article 50 last month that, in leaving the EU, Britain means no harm to our friends and allies on the continent,” she said.

May and the Conservative Party remain well ahead in the opinion polls, pointing to a victory for May with an increased majority on June 8 if the pollsters are right.</s>It’s a glorious British tradition — the party leader, humbled by an ordinary member of the public in the face of the world's press. Tony Blair faced it, as did Gordon Brown and David Cameron . On Wednesday, it was the turn of Tim Farron of the Liberal Democrats, as he came face-to-face with Malcolm Baker on a campaign stop in Oxfordshire, just northwest of London.

“I knew what I was voting for!” shouted the irate pensioner, incensed at anti-Brexit types like Farron claiming voters like him were ignorant of the referendum's true import. The Liberal Democrats, traditionally Britain's third party, favor the softest possible split from the E.U., and would offer a second referendum on the terms of the deal .

“Have you got grandchildren?” Farron asked, perhaps emboldened by the prospect of exposure in the evening news. “Are you proud that they will inherit a poorer, less powerful, less secure country?”

“I’m proud that they are going to be coming out of Europe and that we will have our own destiny,” replied Baker. Turning to the cameras surrounding them, the 65-year-old finished by stating his voter preference in the June 8 vote. “I’ve always voted Labour,” he shouted, “but I’ll be voting for Theresa May.”

Not "the Conservative Party," not "the Tories." He will be voting for Theresa May.

In fact, Malcolm will probably be voting for Nicola Blackwood in next month’s general election (if he’s true to his word). She is the Conservative candidate for the local constituency, and voters in Britain do not cast their ballots for a leader, but for a parliament.

But this year, the Conservative Party is trying to change that. Tory campaign teams are being told to emphasize the Prime Minister’s name over the party in literature and in speeches . They are eager — desperate, in fact — for this vote to be a referendum on leadership.

Accordingly, it’s unfolding a little like a presidential contest. Just like Hillary Clinton, May has been unwilling to give the media access . In Cornwall, England’s southernmost county, local reporters claimed to have been shut in a room while May observed a factory. There was no risk of an unscheduled brush with ordinary folk; this PM's not for humbling.

Later on Wednesday, May took a leaf out of President Donald Trump’s campaign playbook with an astonishing broadside against her chief rival. No, not Jeremy Corbyn (though she did deign to mention the hapless Labour leader she is leading in the polls by as much as 20 points). The faceless European bureaucracy is May’s true opponent in this election, or so she’d like voters to think, and she took a swing at it.

In remarks delivered outside her official residence at 10 Downing Street, May flatly accused European Union officials of attempting to influence the election with “threats” against Britain . "Britain’s negotiating position in Europe has been misrepresented in the continental press," she said. " 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."

This all stemmed from a dinner last week with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, in which the two sides had discussed their negotiating positions in a supposedly civil environment. The European side quickly leaked messy details of the meeting to German media , claiming May had shown herself to be ill-informed and ill-prepared for the negotiations.

The bureaucrats in Brussels, where the E.U. is headquartered, then followed up with a press conference on Wednesday where they insisted Britain must agree to pay up what it still owes to the E.U. in terms of budget commitments before striking out on its own. According to the Financial Times , the demand could be as much as $100 billion .

Just like her friend in the White House, May decided to forgo leaks and take her message straight to the people. It was an extraordinary move, no doubt intended to seal the impression in voters’ minds that May is a fearless leader willing to stand up to the European enemy. Tomorrow’s right-wing tabloids will surely bang that drum relentlessly.

Perhaps the Prime Minister feels the bigger her personal mandate, the more influence she will have in negotiations with the E.U. But is that really worth getting Brexit talks off on such a poor footing?

The U.K. has a very poor hand coming into the negotiations. Success depends on convincing the 27 remaining countries within the E.U. that a Britain outside the E.U. can be as strong an ally and trading partner as within. If talks collapse, it is Britain who stands to plummet out of the bloc and face the prospect of higher tariffs and stricter quotas under WTO trade rules .

The meaning of this general election is clear: May wants a landslide that would confirm her place as the U.K’s most powerful prime minister in a generation. But it’s not clear those powers would be much use on the playing field in Brussels.

Unless Malcolm Baker is a whiz at trade diplomacy , he and other converts like him may not be much use to May in the longer war ahead.</s>LONDON (The Washington Post) - Prime Minister Theresa May made an explosive charge Wednesday that European Union officials are meddling in Britain’s June election, as tensions escalated over looming talks about British withdrawal from the European Union.

“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 that will take place on June 8,” the prime minister said.

Tensions between the continent and the United Kingdom have ratcheted up this week following leaks in the German press about a dinner between May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, which painted an unflattering portrait of May.

Speaking outside her Downing Street offices, May said, “In the last few days, we have seen just how tough these talks are likely to be. Britain’s negotiating position in Europe has been misrepresented in the continental press.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also warned last week that some in Britain harbor “illusions” about what is possible in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.

May’s strong language highlights how poisonous the negotiations have become. But her remarks also signal a deliberate domestic strategy, as May seeks to cast herself in the British election as someone who can go toe-to-toe with European officials.

“There are only two people who can possibly be prime minister after the 8th of June to negotiate Brexit. It is a choice between me and Jeremy Corbyn,” she said.

Earlier in the week, she said she would be a “bloody difficult woman” in the negotiations with the EU.

May’s statement on Wednesday came shortly after she met with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace to officially start the election campaign. Polls suggest that May’s Conservative Party is on course to make big gains in the election.

Last week, May and Juncker met to discuss the upcoming Brexit negotiations, and according to a leaked account in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, Juncker left “10 times more skeptical” that a deal could be achieved.

The two reportedly clashed over the “divorce bill,” the rights of EU citizens and the timing of trade talks. After the meeting, Juncker was said to have told Merkel that May was living in another “galaxy.” May initially dismissed the report as “Brussels gossip.”

One of the major sticking points in the early discussions is the size of the divorce bill that Britain will pay the European Union.

David Davis, Britain’s Brexit minister, strongly disputed a report Wednesday in the Financial Times that 100 billion euros ($109 billion) would be the price tag demanded by the bloc.

“We will not be paying 100 billion,” he told the BBC.

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, refused to put a figure on Britain’s exit bill. But he did say Wednesday that Britain must settle its accounts before it can begin talks about a future trading relationship with the EU.

“The clock is ticking,” he said.</s>Theresa May says Jean-Claude Juncker will be the next person to find she can be a ‘bloody difficult woman’ during Brexit negotiations. Speaking to BBC News in Mevagissey on Tuesday, the PM revived the line used during her Tory leadership campaign to respond to claims her and Juncker had a fractious dinner over the weekend
• May: Juncker will find me ‘bloody difficult woman’ in Brexit talks</s>Responding to claims the two clashed over a working dinner at Downing Street, the Prime Minister said she will not give the European Commission president an easy ride. Former Cabinet colleague Ken Clarke branded the Mrs May “difficult” during the Tory leadership campaign. But the Prime Minister wore the description as a badge of honour as she fired a warning shot to Jean-Claude Juncker amid reports of tensions between the two politicans.

Speaking to the BBC, Theresa May 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 Prime Minister insisted "a lot" of the leaked account of a difficult Downing Street dinner between the two sides was "Brussels gossip". But she acknowledged the Brexit negotiations were going to be tough after a detailed account in the German press of their meeting suggested Mr Juncker left fearing the talks would end in failure.

Pressed by BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg whether the commission chief had indeed found that out, Mrs May said: “Well these are going to be tough negotiations as we as we go ahead. “I’m asking the British people to give me a mandate to go into those negotiations. “Every vote for me and my team is a vote to strengthen our hand in ensuring that we get the best possible deal for the United Kingdom.” Asked whether Mr Juncker had told her at the dinner “Brexit cannot be a success”, Mrs May said: “I don't recall the account that has been given of the meeting that took place.

“I think a lot of this is Brussels gossip.” Mrs May and Brexit Secretary David Davis met with Mr Juncker and the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier for a working dinner last week. German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper said European Commission sources said the EU side concluded Mrs May was way too optimistic about the prospects for a deal. As he departed, Mr Juncker was said to have told her: “I leave Downing St 10 times as sceptical as I was before.”

Mr Juncker publicly said the dinner was “a very constructive meeting in a friendly atmosphere” as European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said he would not comment on leaks. But the EU chief sparked outrage when he said: “I have the impression sometimes that our British friends - not all of them - do underestimate the technical difficulties we have to face”. Mr Chinas said there were “technical difficulties” over the order of Brexit talks and the “degree of difficulty involved in various stages”. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: “I think the talks have got off to a very, very bad start.

“I don't doubt that this leak is irritating for the Prime Minister but the contents are really worrying. “I think that rigid approach, that fixed approach that she has taken here in the UK is simply not working with our EU partners. “We need to be flexible, we need to be smart and we need to understand how negotiations go - so she has got off to a very, very bad start, I'm afraid." Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “Whether you see these as leaks or Brussels gossip, the whirlwind of news following the May-Juncker meeting is a taste of what's to come.</s>Jean-Claude Juncker's reported comments about Brexit are dismissed as “Brussels gossip” by Theresa May.

Reports of what Jean-Claude Juncker reportedly told the prime minister about Brexit at the weekend have been dismissed as “Brussels gossip” by Theresa May.

The prime minister told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg that she “did not recall” the phrase that “Brexit cannot be a success”.

And she added: “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 would be Jean-Claude Juncker.”
Conservative leader Theresa May states she will be a "bloody difficult woman" in her negotiations with Jean-Claude Juncker regarding the rights of EU nationals after Brexit.