After the UK officially left the EU and entered the transition period this January, Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator insists the government is ‘not scared’ of walking away from talks without a trade deal.
David Frost said “come what may”, the UK would leave the transition arrangement in December. Meanwhile, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, has said he is “worried and disappointed” about a lack of movement in the negotiations from London.
A report was carried out by the National Audit Office (NAO), initiated the then Prime Minister Theresa May, shortly after the referendum. The report spoke about the Department for Exiting the EU providing a barrier to trade negotiations and how the department put intense pressure on civil servants that led many to quit.
Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Christine Jardine has pointed to the NAO findings as further evidence the Government has made a “dog’s dinner” of Britain’s divorce from Europe.
Boris Johnson has now set a 15th October deadline to finalise trade deal or the UK will ‘move on’. This insistence that there will be no trade deal with the EU if talks do not conclude by then has pushed negotiations into the home stretch.
A message posted by Boris Johnson today states “We will of course always be ready to talk to our EU friends even in these circumstances” and “there is still an agreement to be had” however he is also adamant that the UK leaving the EU without a deal would be “a good outcome for the UK”.
Written by Jessica Craighill
Artwork by Zara Masood
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