Theresa May has launched an extraordinary attack on Brussels, accusing European Union politicians and officials of seeking to disrupt the general election and willing Brexit to fail in a combative address delivered from Downing Street.

Speaking after returning from Buckingham Palace to inform the Queen that parliament had been dissolved for the 8 June poll, May delivered an unexpectedly antagonistic speech outside No 10, urging voters to “give me your backing to fight for Britain”.

She took aim at threats and leaks from Brussels days after a German newspaper had reported about the supposedly strained atmosphere at a Downing Street dinner last Wednesday with European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.



“In the last few days, we have seen just how tough these talks are likely to be,” she said, rejecting the idea that her guests had found her ill-prepared and unrealistic. “Britain’s negotiating position in Europe has been misrepresented in the continental press.

May’s posturing won’t help in ‘bloody difficult’ Brexit negotiations | Jonathan Freedland Read more

“The European commission’s negotiating stance has hardened. Threats against Britain have been issued by European politicians and officials. All of these acts have been deliberately timed to affect the result of the general election which will take place on 8 June.”

She added: “We continue to believe that no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal. But we want a deal. We want a deep and special partnership with the European Union, and we want the EU to succeed.

“But the events of the last few days have shown that whatever our wishes, and however reasonable the positions of the Europe’s other leaders, there are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed, who do not want Britain to prosper.”

Despite the Conservatives’ commanding poll lead, the prime minister raised the spectre of a hung parliament, and suggested only by voting for “my team”, could the British public ensure Brexit would be a success.

Government sources said the prime minister and her close colleagues, including foreign secretary Boris Johnson, had been genuinely angered by the leaks, thought to come from allies of Juncker – but they also believe striking a combative pose will play well with eurosceptic voters.

The prime minister is also keen to inject a sense of drama into an election campaign that otherwise risked appearing to be a foregone conclusion, perhaps deterring Tory voters from turning out. And she hopes to convince as many as possible of the 3 million people who voted Ukip in the 2015 general election to throw their weight behind the Conservatives.

It was the third time May had hit back at derisive reports of her encounter with Juncker and Michel Barnier, which first emerged in the German press at the weekend. She dismissed the stories as “Brussels gossip” on Sunday, before returning to the subject on Tuesday to warn Juncker and his colleagues they would find her a “bloody difficult woman” – a phrase first used as an insult against her by veteran Tory Ken Clarke.

Her intervention came as Britons prepare to vote in local elections, with councils across Scotland, Wales and many parts of England up for grabs in a poll the Tories hope will point to a swing of support towards them that will be replicated on 8 June.



The Political Studies Association has predicted the Conservatives will gain 115 seats in England and the Liberal Democrats 85, while Labour will lose 75. The greatest damage though is predicted to be to Ukip, with 105 losses, although turnout on all sides remains a concern.

With voting for new metropolitan mayors also taking place on Thursday, Labour hopes Andy Burnham in Manchester and Steve Rotherham in Liverpool will underline the fact that Labour remains strong in metropolitan England – though the Conservatives hope former John Lewis boss Andy Street can clinch the closely-fought West Midlands race.

While May was giving her speech outside Downing Street, shell-shocked EU staff were hosting a panel discussion on Brexit around the corner at the former Tory party central office in Smith Square, which now serves as the representative office in London. One EU official said privately she found the growing atmosphere of recriminations chilling.



Dan Mulhall, Ireland’s ambassador to the UK, called on leaders on both sides to “take a deep breath and calm down”.

How much does Britain owe the EU? Somewhere between zero and €100bn (£84bn) is probably the only accurate answer at the moment. The former is what some British ministers still argue for, drawing succour from an influential House of Lords report that suggests any liability arising on leaving the EU is not legally enforceable because the UK will have left.

This so-called golf club argument is vigorously contested by most other EU governments, who insist all financial obligations must be met before they will agree to any future trade deal. The figure of €100bn is the latest in a series of back-of-the-envelope estimates by journalists and thinktanks who have attempted to tot up those obligations. Previously the consensus among the same experts was €60bn.

Just hours before May spoke, Brexit secretary David Davis had brushed off reports that last week’s dinner was tetchy, and played down speculation Brussels will demand a €100bn exit bill from Britain, saying he would not engage in “megaphone diplomacy”.

But the EU’s chief negotiator admitted there was a clash during last week’s dinner in Downing Street and warned that the size of the multibillion pound bill the British government will be presented on leaving the bloc will be “incontestable”.

Michel Barnier told reporters the “clock was ticking” on the time left to come to an agreement about the future as he unveiled the EU’s opening stance on citizens’ rights, the UK’s financial obligations and the border in Ireland.

On the subject of the dinner last Wednesday, where it was suggested May said the UK should not have to pay a penny, Barnier added: “I see that today on this question, as others, there are differing positions that emerged during the dinner in which I participated in.

“The UK must put a great deal of energy and effort into these three issues over the next weeks and months, and that will increase the chances of making a deal.



“Some have created the illusion that Brexit would have no material impact on our lives or that negotiations can be concluded quickly and painlessly. This is not the case. We need sound solutions, we need legal precision and this will take time.”

Barnier declined to specify the size of the exit bill that the EU would demand.



“This all has to be totted up,” he said. “We have entered into rigorous and objective work that should be incontestable and which will have to take account of commitments for the past”.

Reports have emerged that the EU is preparing to demand a payment of up to €100bn (£84.5bn), up from a previously estimated €60bn, due to new stricter demands driven by France and Germany.

Opposition parties warned taking such a hard line with Britain’s EU partners for short-term electoral gain risked souring the crucial talks, which are set to begin in earnest once the general election is out of the way.



Jeremy Corbyn said May wanted “to wrap the Conservative party in the union jack and distract attention from her government’s economic failure and rundown of our public services”.

The Lib Dem Brexit spokesman, Nick Clegg, said: “Theresa May’s desperate, bizarre statement could have come word for word from Nigel Farage.”

May repeated her insistence that, “no deal is better than a bad deal” for Britain, but her assertive tone did nothing to assuage fears among businesses that the government is prepared to plunge out of the EU without a deal.

The CBI’s election manifesto, published on Thursday , urges all the political parties to rule out falling back on World Trade Organisation trading terms.

Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI’s director general, told the Guardian: “You have to imagine that you are a UK business right now, making investment decisions and facing up to this uncertainty – it’s starting to come into focus now, on a two-year planning horizon – the possibility of falling onto WTO rules: what that means for queues at borders, the warehouses that need to be built. ”