Mr Rabb made the comments during an appearance on the BBC’s Newsnight show which aired last night.

He argued last month’s Salzburg summit, where the UK Brexit proposals were rejected, was followed by “some fairly unsavoury political posturing and tactics”.

Asked who he was referring to by BBC presenter Emily Maitlis Mr Rabb replied: “Well we all saw what happened with the language that was used by some of the leaders".

Ms Maitlis then specifically asked Mr Raab if he was referring to French President Macron.

He confirmed her suspicions before adding: “But what I’m not going to do is get in for personalised tit for tat.”

Mr Macron caused controversy in Salzburg when he said Brexit is the “choice of the British people, a choice pushed by those who predicted easy solutions.

“They are liars.”

During the Newsnight interview Mr Rabb also had harsh words for EU negotiators.

He suggested they were deploying “a political negotiating strategy which seems designed for political purposes of drawing a wedge across the UK, particularly on Northern Ireland”.

He said: “The reality is we’ve shown some ambition and pragmatism.

“It’s not matched on the EU side then actually we won’t get a deal.

“I’m confident we still can but it needs to be a two way negotiation.”

Mr Raab admitted the UK and EU are still some way off a formal deal.

He asserted: “On the two key outstanding issues of this whole negotiation, the Northern Ireland protocol and the economic partnership, we’ve still got some way to go.”

Mr Raab was a prominent Brexit supporter during the 2016 EU membership referendum.

He took over as Brexit Secretary after his predecessor, David Davis, resigned in protest at the Prime Minister’s Chequers proposals.