The UK has become an “ogre” that is “a laughing stock” across Europe, a senior Labour politician has said, accusing Theresa May of risking the country’s prospects of a Brexit deal by using threatening language.

“She says no deal is better than a bad deal, but no deal is a bad deal,” the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.



“Saying you’re going to be a bloody difficult woman right at the start of the negotiations tends to make sure you do get a bad deal rather than working with partners across Europe. Theresa May has made us look like ogres across Europe. We’re a laughing stock.”

During the Sky News and Channel 4 debate, the prime minister insisted she had got her way in previous negotiations with the EU and repeatedly stressed her belief that “no deal is better than a bad deal”. That meant being prepared to walk away; she would not accept a “deal at any price”.

In a speech later on Tuesday, May will claim that “economic prosperity will suffer, jobs and livelihoods will be put at risk, and with them the security and peace of mind of working families” if the government fails to secure a successful Brexit deal with the EU.

May’s focus on Brexit in election campaigning comes after her U-turn on the Conservatives’ social care pledge and a tightening in the polls in the race for Downing Street.

Speaking later on Today, the Brexit secretary, David Davis, said Rayner was “incredibly naive” about how the negotiations would be conducted.

“We are going to have to be quite tough with them, I’m afraid,” he said, referring to the infamous briefing of the Downing Street dinner with the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, that was leaked to a German newspaper.

“For 48 hours she said, we don’t recognise this, the politest possible diplomatic language saying ‘this is not the case’. Then we got this demand for £100bn and at that point she drew the line. We didn’t escalate the fight, but at one point we drew the line – that’s what she’s good at.”

Can the UK get away without paying a 'Brexit bill'? Few dispute Britain will have to pay something, eventually. Many voices, even in the UK, think it would be well worth paying too. The CBI, for example, has said that €600bn worth of annual trade is at risk if the row over the divorce settlement leads talks on a future trade deal to break down. In this context, a one-off payment of, say, €60bn is peanuts, it argues. The only catch is that Brussels wants the money in euros, a far more expensive proposition now that sterling has fallen on fears of the wider economic impact of Britain’s departure.



Davis said May was being open with the public about what she was seeking from the negotiations, set to start shortly after the 8 June election.

“We want a free trade deal with free and friction-less trade,” he said. “We are after a tariff-free arrangement but if we can’t have one then we’ll have to design our strategy accordingly.”

In a speech in the West Midlands designed to relaunch her election campaign, May will say: “If we don’t make a success of Brexit, we won’t have the financial means to fund the public services upon which we all rely.

“Our National Health Service – the institution which is there for us at the most difficult times – needs us to make a success of Brexit to ensure we can afford to provide it with the resources it needs for the future.”

She will accuse the EU27 of “adopting an aggressive negotiating position” and will argue that only she can offer the needed strength in the talks that will start 11 days after the general election.



“Jeremy Corbyn is in no position to provide that kind of leadership. He has no plan to deliver Brexit, and he has already admitted he would give control of our borders and control of our laws back to Brussels,” she will add, claiming that the Brexit vote was a “quiet revolution” driven by people who felt left behind.