Poland's foreign minister launched a scathing attack on Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, calling him an "icon of evil and stupidity".

Witold Waszczykowski also added he hoped that Mr Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, "would stay far away from Poland," as the two politicians exchanged undiplomatic blows that put further pressure on the fraying relations between Brussels and Warsaw.

On New Year’s Eve the Council’s president tweeted that he wished his followers on Twitter a “fatherland free of evil and stupidity” an apparent reference to a Polish government that does little to hide its dislike for him.