...as Boris tells EU it must move on deal

THE EU must urgently compromise in a row over access to UK fishing waters or Britain will walk away from Brexit trade talks, Boris Johnson warned last night.

The Prime Minister told Brussels he will make a decision tomorrow on whether to keep going with negotiations.

EU leaders will gather this evening without Mr Johnson to take stock of progress in the talks with the UK. Ahead of the meeting, the PM warned that he needs to see a ‘strong and credible signal’ out of the summit that a deal is within reach.

On the phone with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Mr Johnson expressed his frustration that talks were still not as intensive as he had hoped by this point. And he accused the EU of wasting time by refusing to start work on drafting a legal text.

They were joined on the call by European Council President Charles Michel, who is chairman for meetings of EU leaders.

The leaders will discuss the trade talks with their chief negotiator Michel Barnier at the summit in Brussels this evening. France has led a group of eight coastal states that had been seeking to keep the status quo on fishing quotas.

One of its ministers, Clement Beaune, had warned European fishermen that access to British waters ‘will not be the same as it was before’. But French diplomatic sources still insist they have offered no formal compromise that might break the deadlock.

A UK Government source said: ‘In every area of the negotiation the EU says to us that Brexit changes everything. Fish seems to be the only area where that isn’t acceptable.’