A clip, shown in the BBC documentary Brexit: Behind Closed Doors, revealed the moment the EU Brexit negotiator reported back to EU officials on his meetings with Dominic Raab, then Brexit Secretary. Mr Barnier claimed the former Brexit Secretary had threatened to blame the EU for a potential hard border on the island of Ireland unless Brussels agreed to the terms of the Prime Minister’s withdrawal terms agreed at Chequers in June 2018. The Frenchman argued he counter-threatened Mr Raab with the option to walk away from the negotiations, which sparked the alleged u-turn from Mr Raab. But the former Cabinet minister denied the “completely untrue” accusation.

A spokesman for the Conservative MP said: ‘‘The comments of Barnier and Verhofstadt show that Dominic stood up for the country in the negotiations while Brexit Secretary.

“It’s completely untrue to suggest Dominic backed down in these negotiations.”

And an ally of Mr Raab’s who was present at the controversial meeting confirmed: “Dom delivered a robust message, he didn’t flinch from it and it’s nonsense to suggest otherwise.”

Mr Raab has become an early frontrunner in the race to take over from Theresa May in Number 10 securing substantial backing from fellow MPs, including his predecessor David Davis.

He immediately took his words back, said that wasn’t what he meant

Michel Barnier

In the BBC clip, Mr Barnier can be heard saying: “Now we are dealing with Minister Dominic Raab, he comes every week.

“This may cause, and I am saying this cautiously, coordination problems within the British negotiation team, where clearly they were in the habit of doing things differently.

“On the issue with Ireland, there was a moment of extremely high tension when Raab said: ‘If you don’t accept our demands in the Chequers white paper, the UK-wide solution, the cherry-picking, then you are responsible for the disagreement, for no deal, and thus it is you who create borders, because we want to leave it as it is, without borders.’

“I stopped him there and told him very, very clearly: ‘Your Prime Minister Theresa May never dared say this to us, never. On the contrary, she confirmed that the UK is aware of the problems it creates by leaving the EU and the single market, that it is aware of its responsibility.

“‘The idea that the creation of a border will be the fault of the Europeans is absolutely unacceptable for us.

“‘And if this is the British position, you better tell me straight away so I can inform the European Parliament and Council that discussions are over. Negotiations have failed.’

“He immediately took his words back, said that wasn’t what he meant.

“He is not always into nuances, Dominic Raab isn’t.

“But nuances are important in this discussion.”

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