TRADING BLOWS

May’s Brexit hopes ridiculed as major Japan deal agreed

NO CHANCE

Barnier has warned May EU bosses mocked the Tories’ vision for Brexit yesterday after the bloc signed a major trade deal with Japan.

Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Theresa May’s hope of “frictionless” trade after leaving was “not possible”.

He added: “I am not sure this has been fully understood in the UK.” It led business chiefs to beg the PM to stay in the single market for a Brexit “transition”. The CBI’s Carolyn Fairbairn said: “Instead of a cliff edge, the UK needs a bridge to the new deal.”

Meanwhile, EU Council boss Donald Tusk boasted of the Japan deal, which we will not benefit from, with a dig at Mrs May’s vision for a “global Britain”. He tweeted: “EU is more and more engaged globally. Global Europe!”