UK team accused of believing they can quit but keep all the benefits
BY TORCUIL CRICHTON Westminster Editor BRITAIN’S Brexit negotiators are living on a “fantasy” island where they believe they can leave the EU but keep all the benefits, says a senior Brussels official.
The source told journalists talks will remain stalled unless Theresa May’s team accept things will change forever after March 30 next year.
It appeared to liken the Brits to guests on the 70s TV series Fantasy Island – where secret dreams came true thanks to the mysterious Mr Roarke and his sidekick Tattoo.
Furious British officials reacted by accusing the EU of “trying to insult us”.
After another week of talks in Brussels ended with little movement, the anonymous EU official briefed that the UK had still not accepted the consequences of leaving the EU.
The official said: “The sooner we move beyond ‘let’s just keep everything we have now’, the sooner we move away from this fantasy, then the quicker we can make progress.”
There are still no agreed solutions to maintaining an open border with Ireland after Brexit or finding a trade agreement that Brussels, or even the UK Cabinet, can agree on.
The Irish border could derail the talks before the European Council summit in June, by which time Dublin and Brussels are demanding progress.
Ireland’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed he had not seen any firm proposals on the border since his meeting with Theresa May 10 days ago in Sofia.
He said: “We are still waiting for them. We’re not that far away from the deadline for the withdrawal agreement. We’re very much in the space where we need legal text.”
A UK official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the EU’s criticisms.
He said: “We presented seven papers this week, in the interests of resolving difficult issues in the interests of both sides, so the claim we aren’t providing enough detail is laughable.
“The risk is that, if they follow down this track, putting conditions on our unconditional offers and trying to insult us, the EU will end up with a relationship with its third biggest economy and largest security partner that lets down millions of citizens in the EU and UK.”
Meanwhile, Brexit Secretary David Davis criticised the EU’s insistence that UK cannot remain part of the Galileo spy satellite programme after Brexit.
The UK suggested it would seek to recover €1billion of contributions. BY AMY-CLARE MARTIN and MARTIN FRICKER DAVID and Donna Stickley went about their daily routines for a week, unaware she was carrying a lottery ticket in her handbag that would change their lives.
The couple last night told of the astonishing moment they realised they had scooped £21million – but they still refused to believe it.
Donna, 48, even carried on watching the royal wedding while she waited for her husband to get home to ring Camelot.
As the couple toasted their win, David, 58, said he felt “luckier than Prince Harry”, adding: “These sort of things don’t happen to us.”
Donna had put the lottery ticket in her handbag after buying it on Saturday, May 12.
Last Saturday, she finally got round to handing it to a supermarket checkout worker who told her to call Camelot as she had won “more than £500”. Donna said: “I was shell- shocked. I thought we had won £1000 or something. I went home and rang David, who was working.
“He said to look it up online and when I went on the internet I couldn’t quite believe what came up.
“I thought it was £2million, the decimal points didn’t quite compute.
“I rang David and told him what it was and he said that’s not £2million, that’s £21million.”
David added: “When Donna called, all I could hear was funny breathing down the phone. She was all in a tizz.
“I told her to put it somewhere safe so we could deal with it when I was back from work. We are still in shock.”
Despite their new-found wealth, the couple, of Slough, Berkshire, insisted they will both be back at work on Tuesday as normal.
Donna, an office manager at an engineering firm for 20 years, said: “We enjoy our jobs and we like the people we work with, so that’s what we are going to do.”
But the pair, who only tied the knot in March after 20 years together, will now splash out on a honeymoon.
Aircraft refueller David said: “I was fortunate to travel the world with my previous employer and see some amazing places… so it’s going to be a case of, ‘Donna, where do you want to go, girl?’ We might just put a pin a map. We want to sit on a beach OUR biggest Lotto winner scooped £35,133,888 on April 2, 2016, but their identity is a mystery after they decided to remain anonymous.
The second-biggest win was by David and Carol Martin, who landed £33,035,323 on January 9, 2016. The couple, from Hawick in the Borders,