PM’s rage at EU turncoats: You’ll live to regret ‘Der Spitzenkandidat’! Cameron rages at other leaders he thought agreed with him over ‘Juncker the drunker’

• PM throws European Commission president Herman Van Rompuy out of 10 Downing Street in row over new president
  
• Several EU leaders told Mr Cameron privately they thought Jean-Claude Juncker not up to the job
• In public they changed their views and backed Mr Juncker
  
• Mr Juncker, 59, has been dogged by rumours of a drink problem for years

By SIMON WALTERS, MAIL ON SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR

Published: 20:02 EST, 28 June 2014 | Updated: 04:24 EST, 29 June 2014

Angry David Cameron ordered EU chief Herman Van Rompuy to leave No10 after a furious showdown over the decision to make Euro federalist Jean-Claude Juncker the new President of the European Commission.

Belgian Mr Van Rompuy was summarily led to the Downing Street door after the men clashed in the ornate White Room over Mr Cameron’s claim former Luxembourg Prime Minister Juncker’s appointment spells disaster for Britain – and Europe.

Tempers flared at Mr Cameron’s determination to expose U-turns by Mr Van Rompuy, German leader Angela Merkel, Holland’s Mark Rutte and Italy’s Matteo Renzi on Mr Juncker.

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Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite (left), with Mr Cameron (centre), and Denmark's PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Neil Kinnock's daughter-in-law), during the EU Summit meeting in Brussels on Friday

All had told Mr Cameron privately they agreed he wasn’t up to the job, but to the PM’s fury they caved in when Frau Merkel changed her mind in what No10 regarded as a ‘cynical ploy’ to stop her German socialist rival Martin Schulz getting the job.

In a last-minute gambit, Mr Cameron told Mr Van Rompuy at the No10 meeting on Monday that he intended to demand a formal vote on Mr Juncker’s appointment, to shame the ‘Juncker turncoats’ – as one British diplomat called them – at Friday’s summit in Brussels where the final decision was taken.

Mr Cameron was convinced that Mr Van Rompuy, the chairman of the EU Council, planned to nod it through with Frau Merkel in a bogus attempt to claim the EU was united.

If Cameron needed inspiration to give Mr Van Rompuy a Lady Thatcher-style Euro handbagging, he had chosen the right setting for their meeting. 

Two against one: David Cameron thought that he had Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel onside in his battle against Jean-Claude Juncker only for them to turn on him

The White Room was redecorated in Georgian style on the personal orders of Margaret Thatcher when she was in No10.

Cameron fixed Mr Van Rompuy with a Maggie-style glare as they sat opposite each other on opposing cream sofas.

‘If it is to be Juncker, I insist on a formal vote,’ said Cameron.

Mr Van Rompuy blinked: ‘I will decide how the vote is conducted.’

Mr Cameron: ‘You must guarantee there will be a proper vote.’

Mr Van Rompuy: ‘I have said I will decide that.’

Mr Cameron’s face flushed with frustration: ‘I don’t want you saying “anyone who agrees with David raise your hands?” after I have spoken. I want a vote, and the names recorded.’

Still, Mr Van Rompuy sat on the fence.

Mr Cameron finally snapped: ‘If you won’t give me that assurance, there is no point in continuing this meeting.’

Mr Van Rompuy glanced at his chief of staff, sitting next to him, then across to Mr Cameron, and finally at the floor.

Thrown out: Mr Van Rompuy was described by Ukip's leader Nigel Farage as having 'all the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk'

Mr Cameron leapt to his feet and motioned that the meeting was over. He led Mr Van Rumpuy to No10’s famous black door where they shook hands and said goodbye with the minimum of degree of cordiality needed to observe diplomatic protocol.

But it did not mask the truth: Mr Van Rompuy, cruelly described by Ukip’s leader Nigel Farage as  having ‘all the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk,’ had been thrown out in all but name.

By the time Mr Cameron arrived for an EU leaders’ dinner at the  historic Ypres Cloth Hall in Belgium on Thursday, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War, he knew he had lost the ‘Battle of Juncker’.

Other EU leaders, and Frau Merkel in particular, feared embarrassing headlines of ‘Fresh Anglo-German Hostilities At Ypres’.

They needn’t have worried: Mr Cameron made a tactical, and diplomatic retreat.

‘I am not going to cause a fuss. It is an important moment in the history of Europe and we must honour it properly,’ he said. In reality, he had little ammunition left.

Afterwards, his limousine took him direct to Brussels, where he talked late into the night with the UK’s envoy to the EU, Ivan Rogers, to discuss his tactics for the crunch meeting on Juncker at the EU Council’s ‘Justus Lipsius’ HQ, named after a 16th-Century Brussels philosopher who advocated the virtues of constancy.

It was a trait the Prime Minister found hard to identify as he surveyed the 27 others leader sitting around him on the 80th floor.

He eyeballed each and every one of them: the ones who had told him Mr Juncker was ‘too federalist’, who told him in hushed tones he ‘drinks a little too much’, who told him Mr Juncker was ‘lazy’.

In return, he told them why they would live to regret abandoning the traditional power of elected EU leaders to block the appointment of an EU Commission President if it was against a vital national interest.

Under the new, and suitably Teutonic titled ‘spitzenkandidaten’ (German for frontrunners) rule, parties in the EU parliaments choose the candidates.

German speaking Mr Juncker was the ‘spitzenkandidat’ of the European Peoples Party, even though it has less than one in three of the total number of MEPs – and none from the UK.

Mr Cameron did not mince his words: ‘Some people are bringing the EU into disrepute by saying one thing in public and another in private. Let me tell you bluntly, you will regret this. Britain has a problem with Mr Juncker because of his federalist views. He does not mean anything to people in Britain. They don’t know him. How could they? He has never campaigned there,’ he added caustically.

‘This time it is our problem. But next time, it will be you. Anyone round this table who has a strong objection to an EU President will be trapped. By giving away the power of leaders to defend their national interests you, too, will be powerless to act.’

And he went round the room, picking off his targets.

Looking towards the leaders of the three former Soviet Union Baltic States, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, he said: ‘Our protection for you is taken for granted, but another president could disagree.’

He moved on to Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. ‘We put your interests ahead of those of Russia, but what if a spitzenkandidat president thinks that trade deals with Russia are more important?’

Continuing his virtual tour of the EU southwards, he said: ‘Greece has remained in the Eurozone, but what if a future president wants them out? They’d be stuck.’

The economies of Italy and France could suffer if a new president wanted to change the ‘growth and stability pact’ which stops debt- ridden EU countries going broke.

Nor was Ireland immune. ‘Ireland has exceptionally low corporation taxes. What will you do if a new spitzenkandidat president says you can’t have them?

‘The fundamental principle of the EU is the democratically elected leaders of the member states have the right to decide these issues. In making Mr Juncker president, you are going back on all of that.

‘The Commission is becoming the creature of the parliament.’