BRITAIN’S relations with the EU will be in deep freeze for years after the collapse of trade talks, it was claimed last night.
Senior negotiators say it will be near impossible to face Eurocrats across the table again after how they’ve been treated.
They accused Michel Barnier and his team of souring the whole Brexit process with play-acting, time-wasting and threats.
Last night, senior Tories urged the PM to tear up the whole Withdrawal Agreement and force Brussels to come begging for its £39billion divorce payment. The deep bitterness between the two sides was laid bare as Boris Johnson said there was no point in continuing with meaningless discussions.
A source close to the talks said last night: “We couldn’t continue with a negotiation that was more like performance art than real engagement.”
With just 74 days until the transition period ends and last week’s deadline missed, Cabinet supremo Michael Gove will step up No Deal planning. But there is still one possible last window for the EU to rescue the process. Insiders see November 12 as the next deadline for a deal which could be signed off by the 27 leaders at a summit a few days later.
But the sides are poles apart, with the British saying the EU never came close to offering a deal comparable to Canada’s.
Instead, after failing to bounce Britain into a poor settlement, it hopes the PM will return for one after the process has ended. But a source said: “If the EU is unwilling to negotiate a trade deal before the end of the transition period, it may be several years before we can meaningfully return to the negotiating table.”
The British team accuses the EU of refusing to negotiate or cover any issues other than fisheries and “level playing field”.
It led ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith to say: “The EU did not conduct these negotiations in good faith. The PM should tear up the Withdrawal Agreement and not hand over a penny more than we owe.”
And former Brexit minister David Jones added: “We’ve got good grounds to inform the EU it has not performed its obligations under the Withdrawal Agreement.”
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