Juncker admits that leaking of conversation with Theresa May was a “serious mistake”

ALTHOUGH he denies being the source, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, has admitted that the leak of discussions with Theresa May was a mistake.

An article in a German newspaper, suggesting that the British Prime Minister was “delusional,” sparked a series of rebukes from Mrs May and a number of European politicians.

Mrs May suggested that the leak could be part of a European Union plan to interfere in the General Election and to influence negotiations on Brexit as many of the Brussels bureaucrats did not wish to see a successful divorce.

Reportedly the German chancellor Angela Merkel, to whom he had made his remarks, was not impressed and was annoyed by the leak whilst president of the European Council Donald Tusk commented that all talks should be treated with discretion.

Mr Juncker has now told German newspaper Handelsblatt “The fact that this conversation was reported is a serious mistake.”

This admittance was made a few days after the commission president commented in English to an Italian audience that English would cease to be an important language in the EU, which might well have irritated the Irish and perhaps overlooked ongoing business with the USA and post-Brexit Britain.