THERESA May was undermined yesterday after a German newspaper suggested she had “begged for help” and seemed “anxious” and “tormented” when she had dinner with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

The picture painted was a humil-iating account of a weakened Prime Minister knowing she has no hand to play, but both Brussels and London completely rubbished the story, suggesting it had been planted by a Brexiteer keen to embarrass both May and the EU.

The SNP’s Ian Blackford said the Tory leader was being “held hostage” by her Cabinet.

The newspaper’s claims over- shadowed May’s statement to MPs in the House of Commons, in which she appeared to suggest there would be no post-Brexit transitional period unless the EU agreed to a future trade deal.

“The point of the implementation period is to put in place the practical changes necessary to move to the future partnership, and in order to have that you need to know what that future partnership is going to be,” she told MPs, raising again the prospect of Britain crashing out of the EU with no deal.

Asked to rule out a no-deal scenario by Blackford and many ther MPs, the Tory leader refused. Sunday’s edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) claimed that when May went to Brussels for dinner last Monday, she told Juncker she had moved away from a hard Brexit position.

The paper said the Prime Minister “let them know that friend and foe at home were breathing down her neck, waiting for her to fall. She said she had no room for manoeuvre, and that the Europeans would have to make it for them”.

The article went on: “The Prime Minister is drawn from the struggle with her own party. Under her eyes she wears deep rings. She looks like someone who does not sleep through the night.”

It quoted a senior source suggesting that “to break the deadlock on money, May must explain to the Brits why a chaotic Brexit would cost more than Brussels’s bill”.

The article added: “And how will that work? From now on, any bad news would be good for Brexit, says the man. The gloomier the prospects, the more likely the UK will be to open its wallet.”

Though EU leaders at the summit said insufficient progress had been made to move on to a trade deal, the paper said there was an attempt by the EU to bolster the Prime Minister, because the other 27 EU leaders fear having to deal “with the dream merchant [Boris] Johnson”.

Junker’s spokesman said the story was a plot to undermine May and the EU. He said: “Normally, we do not comment on leaks, but today I will. Some people like to point at us to serve their own political agendas, their own political priorities, or even to undermine our negotiating position.

“We would appreciate if these people would leave us alone. We have lots of work and no time for gossip.

“I have to be very clear that President Juncker would have never used the words attributed to him, and never would he have said anything like this. We have never been punitive on Brexit. We have said, at all levels, on many occasions, that we are working for a fair deal.”

Downing Street refused to be drawn on the FAZ report.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I have no comment on it whatsoever. One of the people who was present has denied this morning that it was the European Commission president [who] said it.

“I would point you to what is on the record, which is a joint statement by the European Commission and by Downing Street, which said that the talks were constructive and friendly.”

Former Downing Street aide Nick Timothy suggested Juncker’s senior aide Martin Selmayr was behind the leak to FAZ. Selmayr hit back, saying Timothy was spreading false claims and insisted that Brussels did not want to weaken the Prime Minister’s position.

Earlier this year, Selmayr was accused of leaking to FAZ details of a private dinner between May and Juncker at 10 Downing Street, which the commission president was said to have left “10 times more sceptical” than when he arrived.

Speaking after May’s statement to the Commons, Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, claimed the Prime Minister was “being held to ransom by her chaotic Cabinet”. He said: “Today’s statement was another opportunity for Theresa May to unequivocally rule out a nightmare no-deal exit from the EU. Yet, once again, Theresa May failed to offer the certainty that the UK’s economy, businesses and jobs market so desperately need.

Blackford added: “We have seen the EU27 united in their approach to the UK’s exit from the EU. We have also seen a united business front warning of the dangers of the UK Government’s Brexit plans.

“Theresa May must come out and be clear on where the Government stands; does she back her Brexit Secretary and Trade Secretary’s upbeat outlook for a no-deal? Or does she agree with her Home Secretary, who warned that no-deal would be ‘unthinkable’?”