PM ex-aide Nick Timothy tells Theresa May she's heading for 'very worst' Brexit deal

Theresa May heads to an EU summit on Thursday with a warning from her former chief of staff that the UK is heading for a Brexit deal on the "very worst" terms.

Nick Timothy, who was a key adviser to the prime minister until last year, urged his former boss to "toughen up" as he told Mrs May "the time for playing nice and being exploited is over".

The prime minister is expected to "say a few words on Brexit" at Thursday night's working dinner of EU leaders in Brussels, although the UK's exit from the bloc has been sidelined as a major topic of the summit.

Instead, EU heads of government will focus their efforts on solving fresh tensions between member states over migration.

They will then discuss the EU's stance on Brexit - in Mrs May's absence - on Friday.

Previously, this week's summit had been expected to be a major staging post in the Brexit process.

But the UK's departure has been pushed from the agenda amid a continuing failure by Mrs May and her ministers to decide on what they want from a future EU-UK relationship.

Mr Timothy accused top ministers of undermining the prime minister as he claimed Brussels had successfully "divided and ruled Britain's panicking political classes".

The Brexiteer, who was forced out of Downing Street by Tory MPs following Mrs May's snap general election disaster 12 months ago, berated his political enemy Chancellor Philip Hammond for having "blocked meaningful no-deal planning" and a refusal to consider an alternative to EU financial regulations.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Timothy also claimed Business Secretary Greg Clark has been arguing for the effective continuation of EU free movement rules, despite Mrs May having regularly ruled this out.

Joining others in accusing Whitehall of encouraging business to speak out against the government's Brexit policy, Mr Timothy added: "This is ridiculous and it has to stop. The EU showed last December - when the talks faltered over Northern Ireland - that they want a deal.

"But they want a deal on the best terms for them, and the very worst for Britain. As things stand they might very well succeed."

Mr Timothy suggested new Home Secretary Sajid Javid "alone seems prepared to put the EU on the back foot" by tearing up plans for a preferential post-Brexit immigration system for EU nationals, as well as challenging Brussels over the rights of British expats living on the continent.

He added: "The chancellor should immediately increase spending and staffing to prepare for 'no deal'.

"The time for sincere cooperation with a partner that does not want to sincerely cooperate is over: we must toughen up."

Tory MP and former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan branded Mr Timothy's comments "unbelievable", as she asked on Twitter: "The hard red lines set out in the Lancaster House speech & the 2017 manifesto which left us with no majority (both overseen by N Timothy) have nothing to do with making it more complicated than it needed to be to secure a good Brexit deal?"

Mrs May is expected to use the sidelines of Thursday's summit to get a sense of EU leaders' views on Brexit before hosting a crunch gathering of her cabinet at her Chequers country retreat next week.

This will be followed by the publication of the government's much-awaited white paper, setting out detailed plans on the UK's post-Brexit future, on 9 July.

Ministers have reportedly been told that after the EU summit, and taking into account Brussels' shutdown over the summer, there are now only six weeks left of negotiating time before a summit in October when Brexit negotiations are meant to be concluded.