UK in-fighting ‘holding back talks with the EU’

Divisions among British ministers are hampering progress in Brexit negotiations, the European Parliament’s coordinator on the talks has warned.

Addressing the parliament in Strasbourg, Guy Verhofstadt said they would struggle to move to the next phase of negotiations - including a free trade deal - while ministers in London were fighting among themselves.

“There is a lack of clarity, there is even disunity. There are oppositions between Hammond and Fox. There are divisions between Johnson and May,” he said.

“It is difficult to make sufficient progress.”

Manfred Weber, the leader of the centre-right EPP group- ing in the European Parliament and seen as a close ally of German chancellor Angela Merkel, went further, calling on Theresa May to sack Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary.

He was applauded by MEPS as he said: “We will never accept for the 27 to pay what was decided on by 28, it’s as simple as that.”