No surrender, says minister

– Britain will press for a bespoke deal with the European Union to ensure both frictionless trade and the ability for the country to negotiate trade deals with other countries, Interior Minister Amber Rudd said yesterday.

“We want to have a bespoke agreement. Now, we’re not going to surrender before we have that battle,” Rudd told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show when asked whether the government wanted to have its cake and eat it in the Brexit negotiations.

British and European Union negotiators will spend all next week in talks on Brexit, culminating in their first formal discussion of what their future relationship will look like after Britain has left the EU.

A schedule posted by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Twitter on Friday confirmed he will meet his opposite number, Brexit Secretary David Davis, in London today for the first time since EU leaders gave him instructions to agree a post-Brexit transition to ease Britain’s departure.

After interim accords in December on key parts of the divorce terms, EU leaders agreed to launch talks on the transition and the future relationship.

EU officials expect a faster pace to negotiations compared to the roughly monthly rounds of talks lasting two to three days each time, that was the norm last year. Both sides hope to conclude a deal on a transition in time for EU leaders to endorse it at a Brussels summit on March 22-23.

Though not legally binding unless and until it forms part of an overall withdrawal treaty, leaders hope a transition deal can calm nerves among investors.

Negotiating teams will hold the first technical talks in Brussels from tomorrow to Thursday on what a transition may look like, notably which courts might enforce the treaty.