The European Union risks ruin or transforming into a dictatorship if it continues to blackmail Poland over fears of "Polexit", according to Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister. The comments come amid one of the most tense weeks on record between the EU and Warsaw as a row about the supremacy of European law intensifies. The Polish Constitutional Court ruled on October 8 that its rules superseded EU law - a finding Ursula von der Leyen has branded "deeply concerning".

       In a letter written to the EU leaders, Mr Morawiecki accused the bloc of "punishing" and "starving" his country, with threats to withhold ￡48billion of Covid recovery funds if they failed to bend to the EU's will.

       Mr Morawiecki said: "We ought to be anxious about the gradual transformation of the union into an entity that would cease to be an alliance of free, equal and sovereign states and instead become a single, centrally managed organism, run by institutions deprived of democratic control by the citizens.

       "The language of financial blackmail, punishment, 'starving' of unsubordinated states, undemocratic and centralist pressures do not have a place in European politics. Such language strikes not only at individual states, but the entire community.

       "Unfortunately, today we are dealing with a very dangerous phenomenon whereby various European Union institutions usurp powers they do not have under the treaties and impose their will on member states."

       FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES...