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Ministers paid the European Commission £1.5 million for ‘translation services’ during Brexit negotiations.

It comes after the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) were ridiculed for sending “clunky” translations of the Brexit white paper into 22 European languages.

Translation experts found numerous mistakes and irregularities in several translations, including the French, German, Croatian and Welsh language versions of Theresa May ’s Chequers plan.

The fees were registered ahead of the EU leaders' informal summit in Salzburg in September and the final November summit on Brexit.

(Image: X02762)

Labour MP Jo Stevens, a leading supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, said: “What an embarrassment – the Government has had to hand over huge sums of money to the EU to translate their negotiations for them.

“Maybe the original tactic of trying to talk slower and louder didn’t work?”

DExEU documents reveal the department spent £591,330 on translations in September 2018, when Theresa May met with EU leaders in Salzburg.

And in November, which saw the crunch summit where the PM secured agreement for her deal, the department spent £936,963.

(Image: REUTERS)

The department had previously been ridiculed after it translated the executive summary of the Brexit white paper into 22 languages to distribute to leaders from EU countries.

The French version translated “a principled Brexit” to “un Brexit vertueux” - which critics said changed the meaning of the term by adding an increased ‘moral’ element to the phrase.

The Croatian version used an outdated translation of ‘United Kingdom’ which has not been used for a number of years.

Welsh speakers complained that their version used the word ‘cenhadaeth’ to mean the mission of an organisation. In fact, it most closely translates to ‘religious evangelism’.

And the online German edition misspelled the word ‘Deutsch’.

Ms Stevens added: “It’s no wonder the Government has returned with such a shoddy deal when they had to pay our negotiating partners in the EU to do the interpreting. Parliament should reject this deal when it comes to a vote next week.

“Paying the EU millions in interpreting fees is symbolic of the whole shambolic Brexit process – an embarrassing waste of both time and taxpayers’ money. It’s time to let the public have the final say through a People’s Vote.”

A Government spokesperson said: "These interpreters’ costs have nothing to do with translating the White Paper.

“DExEU pays interpreters’ fees for meetings at the European Union on behalf of all Government departments. That is what this money was for."

DExEU releases data on its spending over £25,000 every month. Since its formation in 2017, it had never listed any spending on translation services until September 2018.

DExEU later clarified that the two charges represented a year’s worth of translation fees.