British Prime Minister Theresa May said she will be a “bloody difficult woman” in Brexit negotiations with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
May’s remarks came in an interview with the BBC after an account of a frosty dinner last week with Juncker in London was leaked to the press.
“I think what we've seen recently is that at times these negotiations are going to be tough,” May said Tuesday
"During the Conservative Party leadership campaign I was described by one of my colleagues as a bloody difficult woman. And I said at the time the next person to find that out will be Jean-Claude Juncker," she added.
According to the account, published by the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Juncker told his host as he was leaving Downing Street "10 times more skeptical than I was before.”
Underlining that the talks would be tough, May dismissed the report as “Brussels gossip.”
"I don't recall the account that has been given of the meeting that took place, I think that a lot of this is Brussels gossip," May said.
Last June more than half of British voters (52 percent) opted to leave the union in a referendum pledged by former prime minister and then-Conservative Party leader David Cameron during the 2015 election campaign, ending the U.K.’s 46-year long membership.
May government has since triggered the Article 50, starting the official EU exit negotiations, and called for a snap general election scheduled for June 8.