LONDON – Guy Verhofstadt, the chief Brexit negotiator for the European Union’s parliament and a “staunch federalist,” said he is “Looking forward to a hell of a conversation with David Davis tomorrow :),” a reference to his meeting with the Brexit secretary in the UK today.

Verhofstadt, who was also the former Belgian prime minister, made the statement in a tweet to which he attached a link to a Telegraph article where Davis allegedly referred to him as “Satan:”

In the article Verhofstadt linked to, an interviewer asked Davis what he thought about the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. Davis responded “get thee behind me Satan!”

Since the publication of the Telegraph interview, Davis clarified that he was not referring to Verhofstadt as “Satan” but he was actually using a phrase to indicate to the interviewer that he would not be tempted in commenting on him personally.

Britain voted for a Brexit by a slim majority on June 23 and, since then, there has been much speculation on when the new prime minister Theresa May will trigger Article 50 and start the official two-year negotiation process for Britain to leave the EU. March 2017 is the current target date.

May said she will not give a "running commentary" on how negotiations are going but she has made it clear in various speeches that her government is prioritising immigration restrictions. This would imply a "hard Brexit" - leaving the EU without access to the Single Market - because the EU's official line is that it will not allow the UK to curb immigration and keep membership the Single Market at the same time.

Verhofstadt himself said this in an interview with Business Insider, arguing that the deal Britain has discussed so far makes no sense.