THIS TIME WE WON’T BLINK
On eve of talks to avoid No Deal Brexit, UK’s chief negotiator warns in exclusive interview...
BRITAIN will not ‘blink’ in crunch Brexit talks this week, Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator has declared, in a marked ratcheting up of pressure on Brussels.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Lord Frost warned his EU counterpart Michel Barnier the UK would not become a ‘client state’ of Brussels by accepting restrictions on fishing rights and vetos of our laws.
His comments come ahead of Mr Barnier’s arrival in London for a fresh round of talks on Tuesday. The two sides have just weeks to finalise any legally binding agreement that needs to be in force by December 31 if a No Deal Brexit is to be avoided.
In the interview – his first since being appointed in January – Lord Frost said the EU needed to realise that Mr Johnson’s Government was adopting a more steely and determined approach than Theresa May’s.
He said: ‘We came in after a Government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously. So a lot of what we are trying to do this year is to get them to realise that we mean what we say and they should take our position seriously.’
To demonstrate the Government’s readiness to accept No Deal, the Prime Minister has created a No10 Transition Hub, with officials across key departments said to be ‘working at pace’ to prepare to trade without arrangements in place.
Lord Frost said the EU ‘have not accepted that in key areas of our national life we want to be able to control our own laws and do things our way and use the freedoms that come after Brexit’.
He added: ‘We are not going to be a client state. We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things; we are not going to accept provisions that give them control over our money or the way we can organise things here in the UK and that should not be controversial – that’s what being an independent country is about, that’s what the British people voted for and that’s what will happen at the end of the year, come what may.’
The bullish Brexit rhetoric is part of an attempt by Mr Johnson’s No10 to ‘re-grip the agenda’ after a chaotic summer marked by an endless series of U-turns on issues such as Covid policy and exam grades, with Tory backbenchers expressing growing disquiet over the professionalism of the Prime Minister’s Downing Street operation.
Meanwhile, in another febrile day in politics:
Mr Johnson tried to face down continuing criticism over the lack of Covid testing at UK borders by considering replacing the 14-day quarantine period with tests after eight days;
As the UK recorded 1,813 new coronavirus infections yesterday, and 12 more deaths, official health figures showed that the highest case rates were among 15 to 44-year-olds;
Mr Johnson’s drive to encourage workers to return to the office was undermined by this newspaper’s discovery that the Civil Service
is advertising new jobs as ‘work from home’ positions;
The Prime Minister and Home Secretary Priti Patel condemned environmental protesters who blockaded newspaper printing presses as ‘completely unacceptable’, and asked advisers to draw up tougher laws to deal with the action by Extinction Rebellion;
Hundreds of anti-immigration protesters clashed with police in Dover after 409 asylum seekers crossed the Channel in one day.
This week’s Brexit talks – the eighth round – mark the final phase of the negotiations, with Lord Frost’s team calling for ‘more realism’ from the EU side to break the deadlock.
Mr Barnier’s refusal to countenance an increase in the amount of fish the UK can take from its own waters, combined with an insistence on a Brussels veto over taxpayer support for businesses, have made a No Deal exit more likely than a deal, according to Government sources.
A source said: ‘We intensified the talks in July to reach a broad outline of an agreement.
‘Due to the EU’s repeated refusal to accept that in key areas we need to do things in our own way, difficult discussions are ongoing. We face critical negotiations.’
Lord Frost said: ‘Obviously, lots of preparation was done last year, we are ramping up again and have been for some time under Michael Gove’s authority.
‘We want to get back the powers to control our borders and that is the most important thing.’
Mrs May was unavailable for comment last night.
‘We want control and to do things our way ’