MEPs have held secret discussions about entering a European Union team in the 2036 Olympics, which would give the EU a chance to beat Team GB in the medal table.

They believe the 100th anniversary of the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics - hijacked by the Nazis for propaganda - will provide the perfect opportunity to show the world how much Europe has achieved thanks to the EU.

But a British MEP has described the idea as “a crazy attempt to destroy national identity” driven in part by “jealousy” over Team GB’s success in London and Rio.

Team GB came second to the USA in the medal table in Rio 2016, with 27 golds and 67 medals in total.

British sports fans were riled when a German PR firm circulated a medal table claiming the EU had “won” the Games by adding up the medals won by all 28 member states, including Britain.

The idea was picked up by a Spanish lobbying firm, which wrote to MEPs suggesting that the 2036 Games would be the ideal chance to enter Europe as “a single participant”. The only people likely to object, the lobbyists suggested, were national Olympic Committees “with their small interests”.

Berlin was suggested as the perfect location for the Games, “to explain the changes that have taken place in German society”.