THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator has trolled Theresa May as the fallout from the disastrous No10 dinner with EU leaders continues.

Guy Verhofstadt said any “deal requires a strong and stable understanding of the complex issues involved” after leaks from Brussels attacked her handling of the talks.

According to a report in a German newspaper Jean-Claude Juncker walked out of the Downing Street meeting last week saying he was "10 times more sceptical than before".

But the European Commission president has been accused of simply trying to “punish” Britain “and deter any other member state from leaving”.

A Government source told the FT: “He has been told we are willing to walk away without a deal, which is worrying him.”

But Mr Verhofstadt mocked Mrs May’s election slogan of providing “strong and stable” leadership on Twitter last night.

He posted: “Any Brexit deal requires a strong and stable understanding of the complex issues involved. The clock is ticking – it's time to get real.”

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This morning the Home Secretary hit back, dismissing the leak from the Brexit talks as "tittle-tattle", saying it was a mistake that details of the dinner had appeared in the press.

Amber Rudd told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "We are not going to comment on leaks like this – they may or may not be true, elements of it.

“But the fact is there is going to be nearly two years of this type of negotiation going on and I think it would be a mistake for the Government to leap on and back on any sort of tittle-tattle that comes out."

She later told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: "I'm not surprised that there is briefing coming out from different sides of a negotiation.

"But what we will always do is make sure that we conduct our negotiations more discreetly, shall we say, so that really we can have a freer negotiating hand.

"I think it's a mistake to allow those sort of details, if they are true, to come out from a dinner."

Mrs May has dismissed claims she is at loggerheads with Mr Juncker over her Brexit negotiating strategy as just "Brussels gossip".

And the Government has said it would not enter into a briefing war with the European Union amid further reports of concerns among EU officials.

The comments came after senior sources on the continent told the BBC the UK failed to understand how the bloc works and is on "a completely different wavelength".

They reportedly accused the UK of misunderstanding the talks and how Brussels works, as well as falsely believing the EU's red lines in negotiations could be flexible.

This has prompted fresh fears Britain would fail to secure a trade deal after Brexit, with Mr Juncker reportedly saying talks are now more than likely to collapse.

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