European Commission says it is 'too busy' to interfere in UK general election, after Theresa May claim

Theresa May had accused the EU of trying to influence the result of the vote

Theresa May and European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker (Getty)

The European Commission has rejected Theresa May's claim that Brussels officials are trying to influence the result of Britain's general election.

Responding dimissively to the Prime Minister's suggestion a spokesperson for the Commission said it was "rather busy" and had other issues on its plate.

Ms May yesterday said outside Downing Street that "the bureaucrats of Brussels" had acted in a way that was "deliberately timed to affect the result of the general election that will take place on 8 June".

Responding to the conspiracy theory a Commission spokesperson said: "We are not naive, we know that there is an election taking place in the United Kingdom. People get excited whenever we have elections.

"This election in the United Kingdom is mainly about Brexit. But we here in Brussels, we are very busy, rather busy, with our policy work.

"We have too much to do on our plate. So, in a nutshell, we are very busy. And we will not Brexitise our work.

"To put it in the words of an EU diplomat, the 30-minute slot that we are going to devote to Brexit per week, for this week it's up."

In an aggressive and unusual speech outside Downing Street on Wednesday the Prime Minister tore into some EU leaders and officials.

"Britain’s negotiating position in Europe has been misrepresented in the continental press, the European Commission’s negotiating stance has hardened," she said.

"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 that will take place on 8 June."

Ms May continued: "The events of the last few days have shown that whatever our wishes and however reasonable the positions of Europe's other leaders, there are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed, who do not want Britain to prosper."

The Prime Minister took no questions after her speech to clarify her comments.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the Prime Minister of "playing party games with Brexit in the hope of winning advantage for the Tories" while Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon accused Ms May of seeking to "poison the atmosphere for partisan reasons" and described the attack as "deeply irresponsible".