BARNIER STORMER
EU’s chief Brexit negotiator tears PM May’s offer to shreds
FEARS of a no-deal Brexit grew last night as Michel Barnier rejected Theresa May’s offer for a deal.
It came as more details were revealed of Government preparations for a doomsday no-deal scenario.
Downing Street have said the Government’s Brexit White Paper is the “only credible and realistic way to move the negotiations forward”.
But the EU’s chief negotiator Barnier tore the Brexit blueprint apart line by line, just hours after May called on him to be “flexible” in the EU’s position.
He said the UK could not be in the single market for goods but not services and dismissed her customs plan as “unworkable” and illegal under EU law.
Barnier added that May’s plan to have the UK and EU collect tariffs on goods on behalf of each other would create “a major risk of fraud and additional costs for businesses”.
He mocked May by noting the white paper was still being debated in Parliament but he said he was “open to any solutions as long as they are workable and can be prepared in time”.
Asked if his assessment was a polite way of saying “No” to the proposals, Barnier replied: “You’ll find I’m always polite.”
He said just 20 per cent of the deal still requires further agreement, including the Northern Ireland border. But he warned there were just 13 weeks left to reach agreement if the deal is to be ratified by all 27 remaining member states in time for Brexit day.
Last night, Treasury Committee chair Nicky Morgan wrote to Chancellor Philip Hammond calling on the Government to publish the latest information on the consequences of no deal.
She wrote: “If ‘no deal’ could lead to empty supermarket shelves and medicine shortages, the public have a right to know.”
Labour’s Owen Smith, a leading supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, said: “May’s July of horrors just got a lot worse as the EU’s chief negotiator made it clear her white paper was a dead letter.
“It split her Cabinet, divided Parliament and has satisfied nobody in Britain. It is now clear that Brussels isn’t buying it either.”