Juncker: None of the UK’s policy papers on Brexit are satisfactory

MICHAEL SETTLE

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said there were still an enormous amount of issues which remained to be settled.

one might be forthcoming next week as she confirmed a number of new papers would be published in the period ahead.

European leaders are expected to decide in October whether or not talks have progressed enough to move on to future arrangements and Downing Street made clear a meeting tomorrow between Mr Barnier and Mr Davis would give an indication of the state of play.

“Let’s see what David Davis has to say on Thursday,” the spokeswoman added.

But the Liberal Democrats claimed the Government’s endless game of smoke and mirrors was undermining investment and already leading to jobs moving abroad.

“David Davis has described the Government’s approach as ‘constructive ambiguity’, but it looks increasingly like destructive complacency,” said Tom Brake, the party’s Brexit spokesman.

“Unless swift progress is made, the UK risks crashing out of the EU without any deal at all with disastrous consequences for British jobs,” he added.

In other developments:

A Guardian poll found 72 per cent of people thought a divorce bill of more than £30 billion would be unacceptable. Some estimates have suggested a settlement as high as almost £100bn.

Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister,

argued that Northern Ireland should retain the benefits of the European customs union after Brexit by Britain adopting a soft Brexit and staying in the single market or the customs union.

Japanese diplomat Shinichi Iida said businesses operating in Britain were “concerned” with the Brexit processes and wanted clarity, adding it was “no secret” that Tokyo would have preferred the UK to stay in the EU.

The pro-EU campaign, Open Britain, claimed its research showed British businesses could face new barriers to trade with America after Brexit through the loss of existing EU-US trade agreements.