The Infinite Brief

If another company had suffered such a leak of personal details it would constitute a breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The leak includes more than 700 records including names, addresses and professions.

In some cases, the postcodes and addresses of British citizens can be found by searching the official EU website using Google.

A spokesman for the European Commission said that European institutions were “separate” from GDPR for “legal reasons”. Instead, it would be subject to a new law that “mirrors” GDPR which will come into effect in the autumn.