Fury as EU demands concessions
Brussels demanded yet more Brexit concessions from Britain yesterday, prompting warnings that a deal based on further compromise to the EU would never get through Parliament.
Senior Brexiteers insisted that ‘‘enough is enough’’ after Michel Barnier, Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator, told EU ambassadors that ‘‘more work needs to be done’’ as he updated them on the state of the talks.
One diplomat from a major member state insisted the UK ‘‘must move quickly’’ if it wants an agreement signed off at this week’s summit, adding: ‘‘The clock is ticking.’’
The demand came days after European Council president Donald Tusk welcomed the ‘‘promising signals’’ around Boris Johnson’s fresh proposal for how to solve the Irish border issue.
One Cabinet minister hitting out at Brussels for ignoring that the prime minister needs to get parliamentary backing for any deal. The minister said: ‘‘What the EU need to understand is all their very clever negotiating tactics don’t mean anything if you can’t get it through the House of Commons.
‘‘This was the whole thing with the backstop. They moved on that because the thing they were trying to protect – no border in Ireland – was actually more likely to happen because the deal kept getting voted down.’’
The minister blamed the Benn Act – the law which requires the Prime Minister to request another Brexit delay if a deal cannot be agreed this week – for severely damaging the negotiations, saying: ‘‘The Benn Act really is toxic. It disincentivises the kind of flexibility the EU needs to display.’’
The impact of the Act seemed to play out in Brussels yesterday, with one EU diplomat saying: ‘‘If we end up on Thursday without a deal, we are in extension territory but no one is saying that yet.’’
Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, used an interview in the Austrian press to say that if there was a British request for a Brexit extension, it would be granted.
Former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson was exasperated by the EU’s demand for the UK to give further ground.
He said: ‘‘They keep chiselling for more concessions that dilute what appears to be a very generous offer for them. The point comes when you have to say enough is enough.’’
Johnson yesterday briefed the Cabinet on the progress of the talks in a 30-minute conference call. He told his colleagues that if MPs who are against no deal now oppose a new deal, they would be exposing their true aim of wanting to stop Brexit altogether.
According to a Downing Street insider, Johnson stressed that there was a long way to go but added ‘‘where there’s a Wirral, there is a way’’ – a reference to the location of his meeting with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar week. A No 10 spokesman said: ‘‘The prime minister updated Cabinet, reiterating that a pathway to a deal could be seen but that there’s still significant work to get there, and we must remain prepared to leave on October 31.’’