The European Commission has installed Mission Impossible style fingerprint scanners to boost security protecting its Brexit team, amid fears that Britain’s high-powered spy agencies might be eavesdropping on preparations for tense EU-UK negotiations.

Michel Barnier and his handpicked team of seasoned negotiators are on a restricted list of officials with clearance to enter the offices of Taskforce 50 (TF50) as it is called in Brussels.

The department, charged with wresting the best possible deal for the EU from the ongoing Article 50 negotiations, are cloistered away from their fellow bureaucrats on the fifth floor of the commission’s Berlaymont HQ.

The Article 50 offices require both a badge and fingerprint identification, which makes them unique in the Commission, which is guarded by private security firm G4S .