Displaying items by tag: no deal

David Frost, Britain’s trade deal negotiator, has warned the Cabinet that Brussels talks are heading for collapse. He told ministers to ‘take the moral high ground’ when speaking to their counterparts across the Channel in the face of Brussels stubbornness. He urged them to step up their ‘no deal’ planning in case talks over a new trading arrangement break down. Downing Street is preparing to issue warnings that the UK is heading for an ‘Australia-style deal’ - which in reality means tariffs on imported and exported goods under World Trade Organisation terms. Boris Johnson is expected to tell the EU27 to set new rules for their negotiator Michel Barnier, otherwise any hopes of a deal fade. If progress is not made at the next online UK-EU negotiators meeting there is talk in Whitehall of a British walkout. A senior Government source said, ‘Breakdown is entirely possible.’

Justin Welby has told the Lords that if Parliament fails to back a deal with Brussels, it will have shown itself to be ‘unfit for the job’. He warned that a no-deal Brexit could hit the ‘poorest and most vulnerable’ communities the hardest, and MPs have a ‘duty to build a compromise, even if it is unwelcome to some’. He urged MPs to show leadership and put the interests of their constituents first: ‘Parliamentarians must be able to look back at this time and say honestly to the people of this country that we put them, their choices, their welfare and their communities above the politics and ideology that can seem so all-consuming here in Westminster.’