EU to May: Want trade deal? Then ‘face down’ Boris
Attack on Bojo by the European parliament’s chief negotiator He dares the PM to call bluff of ‘desperate Brexiteers’
THERESA May has been told by Brussels that she must ‘face down’ Boris Johnson if she wants to start trade negotiations with the EU by the critical Christmas deadline.
The Prime Minister left a summit of European Union leaders on Friday buoyed by their promise to start preparations for trade talks – on condition she offers an acceptable sum for the ‘divorce bill’.
The supportive noises were part of an effort by the EU to buttress Mrs May’s domestic position. They dread her being weakened and ousted by a hard Brexiteer such as Mr Johnson, who would be happy for the UK to crash out of the EU without a deal.
But last night Mrs May was warned by one of the most senior figures in the Brussels establishment that she had to defy Mr Johnson by making concessions.
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator, told The Mail on Sunday that Mrs May should call the bluff of the ‘increasingly desperate Brexiteers’ and ‘outline, once and for all, what kind of future relationship the country wants with the European Union’.
He said: ‘This may require Theresa May to face down Boris Johnson and others in her own party who refuse to accept the reality of the Brexit they campaigned for... Brexiteers failed to outline the extent of UK liabilities in Europe.’
He added: ‘It will not be the taxpayers of the European Union who pay Britain’s bar bill.’ The warning came as: l Brexit Secretary David Davis met anti-EU Labour MPs in private to beg them to help pass legislation;
l Government mandarins told Ministers they will not agree to downplay the disruptive impact of a no-deal Brexit for political ends;
l Lib Dem leader Vince Cable produced research which claimed a no-deal Brexit would cost the UK around £430 billion over five years.
EU leaders made clear at the Brussels summit that unless Mrs May increased the ‘divorce bill’ offer, they will not give the green light to the trade talks in December.
However, they highlighted that the EU was starting ‘internal preparations’ for an EU-UK trade deal.
Publicly, Mrs May has only implied a willingness to pay a bill of around £18 billion. Privately, however, her officials have long made clear that the negotiations will not be unblocked unless she offers between £40billion and £50billion.
Mr Johnson, who infuriated Mrs May by setting out his own ‘Brexit blueprint’ last month, thinks the bill should be no higher than £10billion.
He also advocates a brief transition period and objects to the UK continuing to be yoked to the European Court of Justice post-Brexit.
Ministers have delayed the introduction of the EU Withdrawal Bill – intended to give practical effect to Brexit – while they study more than 300 amendments put down by MPs.
They are particularly concerned about Tory support for a move to force a Commons vote on the final deal, which would effectively give MPs the right to block the option of leaving the EU without a deal.
Tory whips are so concerned that they will lose the vote that Mr Davis has held meetings with anti-EU Labour MPs to urge them to vote with the Government.
It has also emerged that civil servants have warned Ministers against
‘He is regarded as a joke, but a dangerous one’
playing down the risks of leaving the EU without a deal, pointing out that it will be extremely difficult to institute border control systems and post-Brexit IT projects in the 18 months remaining.
Some have taken to setting out concerns in emails so that there is written evidence to exonerate them in the event of any inquiry.
The antipathy to Mr Johnson is particularly acute in Germany and France, where they fail to see the funny side of his Second World War comparisons: he has accused the EU of contemplating Nazi-style ‘punishment beatings’ over Brexit. A senior EU source said: ‘He is regarded as a joke, but a dangerous one.’
Some elements within the EU still think Brexit can be averted, or at least diluted – but not if Mr Johnson took over. A senior source in the European Parliament said: ‘They think we should drive such a hard bargain that the UK is forced to walk away; they think when May is forced to confront the grim reality of a no-deal Brexit she will offer a second referendum in which your voters will opt to stay in the EU, or at least opt for a Brexit-lite.’