Will EU give us a Yule gift?

DAVID Davis reckons the EU will cave in over the UK’s divorce settlement by late December.

Which would be the best present the Brexit Secretary could find in his Christmas stocking.

The cliches used by Whitehall officials changed last week from “the ball’s in their court” to the EU should stop putting “the cart before the horse”.

The cart is the load of money we must pay for Brexit to fill Eurocrat pension pots and relocate Londonbased EU agencies. Whitehall privately puts that at £40billion but neither side will open the bidding.

The horse is a free trade deal and Mr Davis has told EU Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier the size of the cart will depend on the size of the horse.

A senior Whitehall source told Brexit Countdown: “We expect Barnier to blink first by Christmas and park the money issue.”

Despite warm words last week for Theresa May at the European Council, the EU’s top policy-making forum, there was no breakthrough. Moving to trade talks by Christmas would give Britain just 14 months to avoid the no deal Whitehall is now frantically preparing for.

But even if the divorce settlement is postponed there’s still disagreement on alimony.

Former EU commissioner Pascal Lamy sniffs: “The UK believes it can buy something with money they have to pay.”

In other words the sticking point is the EU’s insistence we should settle up our bar bill and leave the pub – while we think that will just let us order more drinks.