Fury in Brussels at three-hour British rebuttal of EU exit demands

EU BREXIT negotiators were left “flabbergasted” after their British counterparts launched a legal deconstruction of the so-called “Brexit bill” putting the Brussels talks on course for an acrimonious impasse.

British negotiators spent three hours launching a painstaking, line by line rebuttal of the EU’S demands for a €100billion (£92billion) divorce settlement to the barely concealed fury of EU negotiators.

“There was total amazement,” an EU source said, “Everyone was completely flabbergasted that this young man from Whitehall was saying that the EU’S preparation on the financial settlement was ‘inadequate’. It did not go down well.”

The “intense” exchanges were the first time the two sides have clashed head-on over the details of the divorce bill and sets up what is expected to be a frosty joint press conference today between David Davis, the Brexit Secretary and Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator. Mr Barnier again accused the UK of failing to specify its positions. “To be flexible you need two points, our point and their point,” he said. “We need to know their position and then I can be flexible.”

British negotiators have consistently refused to say what the UK is prepared to pay for Brexit, but have sought to turn the tables on the EU side by attacking the legal basis for their demands.

In an 11-page presentation containing 23 slides and 47 paragraphs of dense text, the British negotiators argued that the European Commission’s four-page position paper on the financial settlement provided scant basis for a settlement. “The UK is not convinced that the European Commission’s paper [on the financial settlement] is satisfactory,” said a source with knowledge of the UK strategy.

Among the slides was a reference to a key part of Article 50 which says a member state’s withdrawal from the EU should be agreed with reference to the “future relationship”.

The EU side is refusing to discuss a future EU-UK relationship until there is “sufficient progress” on the issues of the financial settlement, citizens’ rights and the Northern Ireland border – all issues the UK says cannot be settled without reference to a future deal.

With the impasse over the talks deepening, Mr Barnier and other top EU officials have warned that the chances of Britain progressing to future relationship talks in October, as originally planned, are receding.

Theresa May, on a trip to Japan, told the EU “significant discussions” had to take place before the size of the socalled “divorce bill” could be agreed.