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Gibraltar’s leader accused EU council President Donald Tusk of acting like a “cuckolded husband who is taking it out on the children”.

The extraordinary outburst came amid claims the EU planned to use the British overseas territory as a ‘bargaining chip’ in the Brexit negotiations.

Temperatures were raised yesterday when former Tory leader Lord Howard hinted Theresa May would be willing to go to war to protect Britain’s ownership of the rocky outpost on Spain’s southern tip.

The EU’s draft Brexit negotiating guidelines, published on Friday suggested Spain be given a veto on the future relationship between Gibraltar and the EU.

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Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo said today: “Mr Tusk, who has been given to using the analogies of divorce and divorce petition, is behaving like a cuckolded husband who is taking it out on the children.”

Picardo said Spain was trying to bully Gibraltar and that the EU was allowing the bullying to happen. He said the British Overseas Territory would not allow itself to become a bargaining chip in the Brexit negotiations.

"We are not going to be a chip and we are not going to be a victim of Brexit as we are not the culprits of Brexit: we voted to stay in the European Union so taking it out on us is to allow Spain to behave in the manner of the bully," he said.

Picardo said the EU should remove the reference to Gibraltar, which overwhelmingly voted to stay in the EU, from the draft guidelines.

"Removal of the reference to Gibraltar would be a sign of good faith and good will," he said.