Theresa May warned EU leaders tonight she needs a Brexit deal she can ‘defend to our people’ – as they lined up to demand billions more from Britain in divorce payments.
With senior Eurosceptics urging her to pull the plug on the talks, the Prime Minister issued a blunt message to counterparts that she cannot be pushed much further, after agreeing to make a £20billion divorce payment last month.
In a 15-minute presentation over a dinner of pumpkin gnocchi and pheasant in Brussels, Mrs May also told fellow leaders that time was running out to move on from divorce proceedings to a future trade deal.
She told them there was a ‘clear and urgent imperative’ for them to ‘enable us to move forward together’ when they report on the state of the Brexit negotiations in the morning.
Theresa May leaves an EU Summit in Brussels, where she said that she needs a Brexit deal that she can ‘defend to our people’
In a significant act of symbolism Mrs May walked into the summit room flanked by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron this afternoon
The PM has told EU leaders she wants work to begin on her ‘bold and ambitious’ vision for future relations. Mrs Merkel has hinted at trade talks by Christmas
The three leaders had a chat at the EU summit in Brussels today ahead of Theresa May’s address to her fellow European leaders later tonight. The PM wants to move on to trade talks – but Germany and France are said to be the biggest stumbling blocks to her plan
Theresa May has a chat with Dutch Pm Mark Rutte – one of Britain’s closest allies – and the Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni. But even Mr Rutte has urged the British Prime Minister to be clearer about what she wants out of the EU negotiations
A senior UK official said EU leaders had to understand the ‘difficult political backdrop’ the PM faces at home.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron tried to shore up Mrs May’s position earlier, greeting her on arrival at the Brussels summit where they chatted animatedly with her for the cameras.
Mrs Merkel, whose government has started drawing up secret plans for a trade deal with the UK, struck an upbeat note, saying there were ‘encouraging’ signs that the negotiations would be ready to move on to trade by December.
The German Chancellor also said that she could see ‘zero indications that we will not succeed’ in successful trade talks.
‘I want very clearly a deal and not some unpredictable solution, on this we are working very intensively,’ Merkel added.
In another positive sign for Mrs May, it emerged that Sweden is drawing up plans for a future trade relationship with the UK.
But other EU leaders continued to press the PM for more ‘detail’ on how much the UK is willing to hand over in a divorce settlement.
Some in the EU are calling for the UK to pay as much as £90 billion and none are satisfied with the current £20billion offer.
Mrs May has privately indicated that she is willing to increase the offer on the table. But, with public opinion resistant to handing over a large cheque, she is reluctant to name a significantly higher sum or agree to their demand to set it out in writing.
Mrs May urged leaders to seize the offer she made last month in her Florence speech to honour Britain’s financial commitments to the EU as part of a two-year transitional deal.
She said she had made the offer after recognising that the Brexit talks had stalled in the summer.
Mrs May told them she had ‘recognised the difficulty the process was in,’ adding: ‘I took stock, listened to what people in the UK were saying and what my friends and partners in Europe were saying and I made a step forward.’
She insisted the speech had kick-started talks, but added: ‘We must work together to get to an outcome we can stand behind and defend to our people.’
The PM urged fellow leaders to be ‘optimistic and ambitious about what we can achieve, because we share the same set of beliefs’.
And she confirmed that the UK remained ‘unconditionally committed to maintaining Europe’s security’.
David Davis is preparing to present an ‘upbeat’ assessment of a No Deal Brexit to the Cabinet
David Davis is preparing to present an ‘upbeat’ assessment of a No Deal Brexit to the Cabinet, it was reported.
In a change in negotiating tactics, the Brexit Secretary was last night said to have ordered his officials to plan for a failure to get a trade deal.
He is said to be planning to present this scenario to his colleagues on Halloween. The move is expected to alarm his pro-Remain colleagues, according to The Times.
David Davis is preparing to present an ‘upbeat’ assessment of a No Deal Brexit to the Cabinet, it was reported last night
Mr Davis also said that EU citizens would be allowed to bring non-EU spouses into the UK, even if they do not meet the income requirements that British citizens have to. So far Theresa May has failed to talk up how Britain would fare without a deal.
Preferring the option of a trade agreement, it is the first time Mrs May has allowed David Davis to make such a presentation.
Owen Paterson, a former cabinet minister, said a no-deal situation was ‘inevitable at the moment’, but stressed that the UK should not be ‘terrified’ of this outcome. Referring to trading on World Trade Organisation terms, he said: ‘It is an ineluctable certainty we are going to end up with WTO at the end of this anyway.’
Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron chatted together at the start of the summit, but the French President has made no secret of his bid to use Brexit to try to lure businesses out of the City of London and to Paris
Theresa May is hoping that her appeal will help unblock Brexit talks and encourage leaders to talk about our future relationship with the bloc. But hopes that she will succeed are dwindling as the talks are embroiled in a fresh row over how much Britain should cough up to meet Brussels’ massive pensions bill
The Prime Minister was quizzed by reporters on her approach to the summit when she reached the venue today
Mrs May (pictured speaking to reporters this morning) hopes the message delivered in her Florence speech will unlock the talks today
EU leaders will tomorrow morning whether ‘sufficient progress’ has been made in divorce talks to move on to trade.
British officials were downbeat about the prospects for an immediate breakthrough, but are hoping the EU will set out a path to begin trade talks by the end of the year.
But EU leaders arriving in Brussels earlier today continued to stress the need for Britain to pay more.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, seen as one of the UK’s closest allies, said: ‘Theresa May has to come up with more clarity on what she meant by ‘other commitments’ in her Florence speech.
‘I phoned her last week and tried to encourage her to do that but so far she hasn’t.’
The demand was echoed by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who said that putting an end to the stalemate will ‘require more concessions from the UK government’.
He added: ‘We’re quite far back far from the cliff edge at this stage but it is incumbent on all European leaders that we don’t sleepwalk towards it.
Theresa May last night reiterated a pledge to pay around £18billion into the EU budget over the next two years as part of an eventual Brexit bill.
But EU officials and leaders are adamant that the UK must further spell out how much of the bloc’s debts she is willing to pay off.
Britain is said to be fighting calls to pay 11billion euros towards pensions for EU officials, saying the true figure should be more like 3.5billion.
The Prime Minister is understood to have outlined in more detail the eventual shape of the bill in private conversations with EU leaders such as President Macron and Mrs Merkel.
But figures close to negotiations said talks on trade will only be opened once the UK puts an offer ‘on Barnier’s table’, a reference to the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
Outgoing Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern described the lack of breakthroughs as a ‘big disappointment’ yesterday.
‘We have to speed up of course because this is definitely detrimental to the European economy. There are so many open issues and we have to come to solutions.’
Juha Sipila, the Finnish Prime Minister, said: ‘We are a little bit frustrated about the progress but hopefully we can be in that position in December.
Lithuania’s president Dalia Grybauskaite also took aim at the Prime Minister, adding: ‘Mrs May needs to be persuade herself to be more realistic’ – is she? ‘Not yet.’
She also made reference to the how the venue for yesterday’s meeting was changed due to the presence of toxic kitchen fumes.
Writing on Twitter, she said: ‘Lessons from European Council kitchen: fuming over Brexit must not become toxic.’
Theresa May and Angela Merkel walked into the Brussels summit together, but behind the scenes the pair are locked in a row over the Brexit divorce bill. The impasse has prompted calls by Brexiteers for Mrs may to walk away form negotiations if she does not make progress tonight
As she arrived at the summit (pictured) German Chancellor Angela Merkel held out the prospect of a breakthrough at the next Council summit shortly before Christmas
A draft paper by the German foreign ministry suggests Berlin (Chancellor Angela Merkel pictured) is privately anxious to secure a ‘comprehensive’ trade deal with one of its largest trading partners
The slow progress has fuelled fears that May’s government may collapse, or worse that Britain may fail to strike a withdrawal agreement before its formal departure on March 29, 2019, which could cause economic and transport chaos of both sides of the Channel.
The former head of Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence agency, John Sawers, warned Thursday that Britain could be left ‘poorer and weaker’ by Brexit and needing to spend more to maintain influence abroad.
Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein meanwhile took to Twitter to say he would be ‘spending a lot more time’ in Frankfurt, just stopping short of naming the German city as a post-Brexit headquarters.
May is under pressure from senior Brexiteers at home, and a group urged her in a letter on Thursday to walk out of the talks if the EU does not agree to move on to trade.
As Mrs May got down to work at the EU headquarters today, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was also in Brussels holding his own talks over Brexit.
Speaking to reporters as she arrived in Brussels this afternoon, Mrs May said set our her hopes for a breakthrough.
EMBRACING CHANGE? JUNCKER SHARES KISS WITH NEW AUSTRIAN ANTI-EU LEADER
Jean-Claude Juncker greeted the leader of the right-leaning Austrian People’s Party, and eurosceptic, Sebastian Kurz
Jean-Claude Juncker puckered up today as he awkwardly greeted the leader of the right-leaning Austrian People’s Party, and eurosceptic, Sebastian Kurz.
‘Boy wonder’ Kurz, 31, also looked uncomfortable as he embraced the President of the European Commission in Brussels ahead of an EU summit.
Leading EU figures have tentatively welcomed the election of Kurz but warned him about forming a coalition with the far-right.
But Kurz has signalled a move to overhaul the country’s politics by embracing the far-right’s anti-Islam policies – saying there was ‘no place for political Islam’ in Austria.
She said: ‘I set out a few weeks ago in Florence a very bold and ambitious agenda and vision for our future partnership between the EU and UK.
‘At the heart of that remains cooperation on the key issues and dealing with the shared challenges that we face.
‘That speech … set out that ambitious vision and Iook forward to us being able to progress that in the weeks ahead.’
As she arrived at the summit today, Mrs Merkel told reporters there had been insufficient progress in negotiations so far to move on to trade talks, but enough to encourage her to think it will be possible to ‘take the work forward and then reach the start of the second phase in December’.
Mrs Merkel said she wanted there to be ‘a good relationship between the UK and EU in the future’.
Mr Macron said there had been attempts to create divisions within the EU, but that the 27 would show ‘very strong unity in the discussions on Brexit’, with shared goals and support for Michel Barnier as the EU’s sole chief negotiator.
The EU is desperate to avoid reopening carefully set budget plans, with countries like Germany refusing to pay more and net recipients saying they will not accept less.
The pensions row is not over the principle of the UK helping meet the costs, but about how the liabilities are calculated.
There are some 1,730 Britons among around the 22,000 retired EU officials, and more pensions will start being paid over the coming years.
The most recent EU accounts showed the total liabilities for pensions rose 5 percent last year to 67.2 billion euros.
Brussels wants to use what is regarded as an artificially low ‘discount rate’ – an estimated rate of return on capital – that would put the UK share at 11billion euros.
But British negotiators are said to believe the bill should be around 3.5billion euros.
‘Paying pensions for well-heeled Eurocrats is one thing but doing it at a rip-off rate is toxic and could be too nasty a medicine for the British public to swallow,’ a source close to the talks told The Times.
‘Is it really worth jeopardising everything for this?’
Mrs May is being urged by some Tory Brexiteers to take a tough line with Brussels.
Former Cabinet minister Lord Lawson, Peter Lilley, John Redwood and Owen Paterson have gone further and suggested she should simply walk away from the table.
MINISTERS ADMIT THEY HAVE PAUSED FLAGSHIP BREXIT LAW
Commons leader Andrea Leadsom failed to schedule the so-called Repeal Bill for the second week in a row
A senior minister admitted flagship Brexit laws had been ‘paused’ today after hundreds of wrecking amendments were tabled by Remain MPs.
Commons leader Andrea Leadsom failed to schedule the so-called Repeal Bill for the second week in a row, insisting ministers were preparing ‘well considered’ responses to the amendments.
The legislation, which copies all EU law onto the UK statute book to ensure a smooth Brexit, is due to undergo eight full days of line by line scrutiny by MPs but none have yet been scheduled.
Delay means it is almost impossible for the draft laws to clear the Commons by Christmas.
Ms Leadsom insisted to MPs today there is ‘nothing odd at all’ about a ‘pause’ between the second reading and committee stage of any Bill.
Mr Paterson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme a trade deal with the EU was ‘the best destination’ but said there was no need to be ‘terrified’ of reverting to World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms.
Germany is playing hardball in public, insisting it is not interested in a trade deal unless the UK offers written guarantees it will make a ‘divorce payment’.
Michael Fuchs, vice-chair of Angela Merkel’s CDU party, said today that he believed the figure should be between 60billion and 100billion euros.
‘I cannot give you the real figure, the final figure, but there is a figure between 100billion and maybe 60billion, something in between these two numbers should be the right point,’ he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
‘This is what the negotiators have to do at the moment, and I hope that David Davis is coming up with a decent proposal, because 20 billion is definitely not enough.’
But a draft paper by the German foreign ministry suggests Berlin is privately anxious to secure a ‘comprehensive’ trade deal with one of its largest trading partners.
The president of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, ramped up the rhetoric this week by accusing Mrs May of being ‘unrealistic’ and said Britain should be forced to pump around 60billion euros into the bloc’s coffers.
Money has emerged as the key issue in the first phase, with the EU refusing to discuss trade until the outline of the financial settlement is agreed.
Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier has sought to up the pressure by repeatedly pointing out that the ‘clock is ticking’ before the formal Brexit date in March 2019.
But Brexit Secretary David Davis has said the two sides have little left to discuss in the first phase, with a deal within ‘touching distance’ on citizens’ rights and the Northern Ireland border intractable until the shape of a future trade relationship is clearer.
The expected failure to agree ‘sufficient progress’ has been made to start trade talks means the issue will not be revisited until the next EU summit in December.
However, ministers are still confident of achieving movement by Christmas.
Michael Fuchs, vice-chair of Angela Merkel’s CDU party, said today that he believed the figure should be between 60billion and 100billion euros
‘No deal would be catastrophic’: Corbyn insists his rival Brexit talks in Brussels will HELP defend jobs in Britain as he slams May’s negotiations
Jeremy Corbyn today claimed a no deal Brexit would be catastrophic as he defended flying into Brussels for rival talks.
The Labour leader said he wanted to make sure Theresa May’s negotiations were ‘on track’ and insisted he would not ‘countenance’ a no deal scenario.
Mr Corbyn said it was up to the Prime Minister to get her talks ‘back on track’ condemned her for presiding over ‘chaos’.
He refused to say he would definitely implement what Mrs May negotiates if he enters No 10 before March 2019.
Mrs May will arrive in Brussels later for a crucial summit that will define the next stage of the Brexit talks.
Amid fears the Labour intervention would confuse the British position, No 10 played down the visit and said ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s diary is a matter for Jeremy Corbyn and his team’.
The PM has been engaged in a high-stakes diplomatic push this week aimed at tomorrow’s decision by EU leaders whether trade talks can begin.
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured today in Brussels) claimed a no deal Brexit would be catastrophic as he defended flying into Brussels for rival talks
Mr Corbyn is meeting EU negotiator Michel Barnier and European Parliament President Antonio Tajani. He will also sit down with the leaders of Italy, Sweden and Portugal.
The Labour leader told Sky News: ‘We are here to make sure that the negotiations are on track so that we defend jobs in Britain and make sure there is trade access to Europe in future.
‘We are here to support the interests of the people of Britain in the negotiations with Europe.
‘The Prime Minister has managed to upset everybody and has a warring Cabinet.
‘We cannot countenance the idea we should rush headlong into no deal with Europe.’
Top Eurocrat says Brexit talks are ‘damage limitation’ for UK
Brexit negotiations are nothing more than ‘damage limitation’ and the only question is how much Britain will pay, a top Eurocrat said today.
Pascal Lamy, a former minister in France and EU commissioner, insisted the UK had to recognise the ‘truth’ that it had no leverage.
The dismissive comments risk inflaming tensions at a crucial stage in talks over Brexit, with the two sides in deadlock over money.
Mr Lamy, who also served as head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), painted a bleak picture of Britain’s prospects.
Pascal Lamy, a former minister in France and EU commissioner, insisted the UK had to recognise the ‘truth’ that it had no leverage
‘The fundamental difference between the UK vision of what this is about and the Franco-German view is that the British still think this is a negotiation.’ he told the Financial Times.
‘It is not a negotiation. It is a process to be managed to minimise harm. It involves adjusting.’
He added: ‘They still seem to believe they can buy something with the money they have to pay
‘The truth is there is nothing to discuss… The only question is how much do you owe.’
Meanwhile, Mrs May’s former director of communications Katie Perrior has admitted that the government weakened its position by invoking Article 50 too early.
She suggested that meant Britain had to accept the EU’s schedule for the talks, with the divorce bill coming before trade.
‘We probably should have taken much more time at the beginning to trigger Article 50,’ Ms Perrior told ITV.
THERESA MAY’S DEPUTY SLAPS DOWN BREXITEERS CALLING FOR MAY TO WALK AWAY FROM EU TALKS
Damian Green today slapped down Brexiteers calling for the PM to walk away from Brexit talks if the EU do not move on to trade discussions.
The Prime Minister’s deputy there are no plans for Theresa May to leave the negotiating table, despite the curent impasse.
The Cabinet minister said it is in Britain and the EU’s best interests to get a deal and he is confident one will be struck.
Mrs May has travelled to Brussels to address a crunch summit where she will appeal directly to the heads of member states to move on to trade talks.
In an open letter published today Brexiteers including Tory former chancellor Lord Lawson urged Mrs May to abandon the negotiations if there is no progress towards a deal.
First Secretary of State Damian Green, pictured earlier this week with Brexit Secretary David Davis, said Theresa May does not plan to walk away from talks in the EU and said he is confident a good deal will be struck
But asked if there is a chance the PM will ‘walk away’, Mr Green said: ‘No.’
He added: ‘David Davis said in the House yesterday that he intends to continue with the talks.
‘I think the Florence speech has led to an improvement in the atmosphere of the talks.
‘They are gong to be tough they are going to be long – it’s a European negotiation you would expect both of those things.
‘But we would expect to have a successful conclusion at the end.’
Mr Green, who campaigned to stay in the EU during the referendum campaign, said he would not change his mind if the contest was rerun.
Speaking to reporters at the press gallery lunch in the Commons, he said: ‘I’ve said that I haven’t changed my views about anything said during the referendum campaign.
‘But there are two main points – one is that there is not going to be another referendum, and second that it’s my duty to try to help get the best deal for Britain.’