NOW BARNIER SAYS HOPES OF A BREXIT DEAL ‘RISING’

MICHEL BARNIER said hopes of a Brexit agreement were rising but Britain could crash out of the transition period with no deal if negotiators ran out of time.

The EU’s chief negotiator said he believed the two sides could still work out a compromise for the two main sticking points – EU access to British fishing waters and state aid.

But he complained the UK’s refusal to budge on the deadline date meant that, even if a deal was done, it would be hard to get it ratified by UK and EU parliaments by the new year.

‘Never before has such a comprehensive agreement been negotiated so transparently and in such little time,’ Mr Barnier tweeted.

‘The next few days are important if a deal is to be in place on January 1.’

Downing Street also seemed more optimistic but insisted no deal still remained the most likely outcome.

‘Obviously, no deal is a possible outcome, as the prime minister has said himself,’ his spokesman said yesterday. ‘We will continue to work and hope to reach a free trade agreement.’

Business secretary Alok Sharma told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We have always said the transition period ends at the end of December and we will not continue discussions beyond that.’ But Mr Barnier (pictured) told EU ambassadors there could be a short nodeal period in the new year even if agreement was reached this week.

‘If it drags on beyond the next few days that becomes a very likely scenario,’ a source told Irish broadcaster RTÉ. Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission president, said yesterday, ‘we are on the very last mile’ and ‘there is movement’. But she also told a conference of world leaders that ‘if the UK wants seamless access to the single market they are welcome, but they have either to play by our rules or the price is tariffs’.