British officials resorted to Twitter to learn the EU’s Brexit plans after being shut out of confidential meetings preparing for today’s European Council meeting.

To the fury of EU diplomats seeking to get as much money as possible from Britain, UK Brexit negotiators discovered leaked confidential conclusions for today’s Brussels summit on social media.

Ambassadors and diplomats of the 27 EU member states held closed-door meetings to prepare their position on the Brexit talks. They have stuck rigidly to their hardline position of conducting all negotiations through the European Commission, shutting down the usual channels of communication with Britain.

But on Friday, draft conclusions for today’s summit were leaked to the press and plastered over Twitter, saving Britain valuable time and legwork to find Brussels sources willing to spill the beans.

“The UK got the conclusions from Twitter,” a well-placed source told The Telegraph.

“Nothing stays secret in this town for long,” one EU diplomat in Brussels said.

The leak meant that Theresa May was fully briefed before Monday's dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker and Michel Barnier, the European Commission's president and chief Brexit negotiator.