Theresa May was left humiliated after a series of mistakes in Salzburg

For the first time since she became prime minister, Theresa May arrived at a European Union meeting with high hopes and the wind in her sails.

She badly needed good news; to be able to go to her party conference in nine days’ time buoyed with success and the acceptance by the EU of her controversial Chequers proposals as the basis of a final Brexit deal.

Instead, she returns humiliated after a series of mistakes, with Eurosceptic Tory MPs and a jubilant French president alike crowing at her discomfort.

It began to go wrong a couple of minutes before midnight on Wednesday when she rose to speak at a dinner table in the Felsenreitschule theatre in Salzburg, city of Mozart. She needed to shine, as