Brexit blackmail!
Fury as Barnier says: Agree divorce bill in 2 weeks or we’ll delay trade talks
TORY MPs last night called on Theresa May to reject a Brussels demand to cough up more money towards a Brexit divorce bill within two weeks or see trade negotiations delayed until next year.
The European Commission’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, was accused of ‘blackmail’ after he threatened to put back the start of formal talks on a comprehensive free trade deal until March.
Whitehall sources last night suggested the Prime Minister would ignore his ultimatum as Tory MPs urged her to resist EU ‘bullying’.
David Davis, meanwhile, ruled out an EU demand to keep Northern Ireland in the single market and customs union.
The Brexit Secretary said this would amount to ‘a new border in the UK’ and insisted he would not accept anything that damaged the ‘constitutional and economic integrity of the UK’.
In her speech in Florence in September, Mrs May offered around £20billion after Brexit so that there is not a hole in the EU’s seven-year budget that runs to 2020.
But the EU has demanded that she promises more cash before talks on a future trade deal begin.
In Brussels yesterday, Mr Barnier acknowledged ‘some progress’ but said more was needed, including on the divorce bill, before he would recommend moving on to trade. He fications indicated or concessions he would need within claritwo weeks to consider whether there was ‘sufficient progress’ before December’s European Commission summit.
If it is not agreed then, the next meeting of EU country leaders is not scheduled until March.
Tory backbenchers urged the Prime Minister not to give further ground on the EU’s demand for around £60billion.
Jacob Rees-Mogg said: ‘Barnier misjudged the British people. We are not going to be bullied.
‘We have already been extremely generous than we have any obligation in law to offer. It is therefore time the EU was serious about these negotiations … they are insolvent without our money.’ Asked if he would be unhappy if Mrs May gave in, he said: ‘I would … so far we have given the EU the timetable it asked for … and we have offered £20billion. I think if we made a further concession it would look like real weakness.’ Andrew Rosindell MP added: ‘We are being blackmailed and we have to stand up to them.’
Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman said: ‘This seems a case of the EU playing Russian roulette … If trade talks do not start by the end of the year, there will be overwhelming momentum for the UK to go to World Trade Organisation rules. The impact of that will be very bad for the EU.’ On Northern Ireland, Mr Barnier said the ‘unique’ situation requires ‘specific solutions’, as it was suggested the nation could remain in the customs union and single market without the rest of the UK. But Mr Davis said: ‘We respect the EU desire to protect the legal order of the single market and customs union. ‘But that cannot come at cost to the constitutional and economic integrity of the UK … this cannot amount to creating a new border inside our United Kingdom.’ Mr Davis said Britain was ‘ready and willing’ to engage with the EU ‘as often and as quickly as needed’ before the December summit, but that there needed to be ‘flexibility, imagination and willingness to make progress on both sides’.
Christopher Chope, Tory member of the Commons Brexit committee, wrote on website Brexit Central that ‘the only Brexit deal being offered to us from Brussels would be far worse for the UK than leaving without a deal’.
Former Tory minister John Whittingdale, vice chairman of the committee, told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘Whilst the British government has tried to be helpful … the position of the Commission and Barnier is exactly the same as where we started …
‘So to some extent, their definition of substantial progress is when we have conceded everything they want.’
‘We are not going to be bullied’