Agreement near yet still so far
with the figures”. Their hope is that the spreadsheet will remain obscured throughout the negotiations and even well beyond the scheduled departure date in March 2019. The true cost of Britain’s exit fee may only become clear in the annual payments to Brussels revealed in the Treasury’s Budget “Red Book” over many years.
This week’s grumbling among Tory backbenchers about the rising EU divorce bill has triggered alarm among Mrs May’s allies. And coming negotiations with Brussels about the future role of the EU’s Court of Justice are threatening to further fray the uneasy Tory alliance behind the Prime Minister’s Brexit plans.
The negotiating teams are believed to be heading towards a compromise over Brussels’ demands for an arbitration role for the Luxembourg-based court on disputes about the rights of EU citizens living in the UK that will not satisfy hardline defenders of British sovereignty. “I suspect that the court issue will be even more of a sticking point. Ending the rule of European judges in our affairs is a Brexit red line for most Leave supporters, including many ministers,” the ministerial source said. Mrs May has so far defied predictions that the EU negotiations would tear her party apart. Labour claims after this year’s general election that Jeremy Corbyn would be ensconced in Downing Street by Christmas are looking more ludicrous than ever.
If she does succeed in winning backing from the EU Council meeting later this month for the Brexit negotiations to proceed to phase two, Mrs May will have achieved a diplomatic triumph.
Yet the growing rumbles of discontent among Tory Brexiteers signal that Monday’s lunch could still bring an unpalatable cost.