The European Union has not learnt the lessons of Brexit and could force Italy to reconsider its membership of the bloc, a senior government adviser has told The Telegraph.

Ignazio Corrao, adviser to Luigi Di Maio, the deputy prime minister and leader of the Five Star Movement, attacked the arrogance of the European Commission and EU leaders for making no changes since Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.

Mr Corrao is Mr Di Maio’s right hand man in Brussels and a member of the European Parliament. He was the coordinator for the regional campaigns that ultimately led to a Eurosceptic coalition government in Rome.

He said leaving the EU was not in Five Star's manifesto, "but of course in politics things change. We still believe that we [can] get to a better Europe in the next months and years."

He added: "If this doesn’t happen we will have to reconsider. If something is not working, it is impossible to continue in the same way.”

He is pinning his hopes on next May’s European Parliament elections to bring real reform to Brussels but is keeping the option of "Italexit" open if reform fails.

“Those who are now ruling the European Union have not been getting what the European people are really feeling,” he told The Telegraph.