What is the UK demanding from the EU to avoid a no-deal Brexit?
Michael Gove says door is still ‘ajar’ to secure trade agreement with Brussels
Michael Gove has said the door is “still ajar” for talks with the EU over a post-Brexit trade deal - but only if Brussels speeds up negotiations and offers concessions.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr yesterday, Gove said: “We have drawn the conclusion that unless their approach changes, they are not interested and they have in effect drawn stumps.”
However, despite Boris Johnson’s statement on Friday suggesting that official negotiations were over, Gove added: “We hope the EU will change their position and we are certainly not saying if they do change their position we can't talk to them.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
London has two main demands that need to be met if last-minute trade talks are to resume, a senior government source told Politico’s London Playbook.
The UK wants chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier to indicate that Brussels is willing to work night and day for a deal - “i.e. actually intensively”, says the site’s Alex Wickham.
Downing Street also wants Barnier to acknowledge that “it isn’t just Britain that has to compromise, in effect to apply pressure to French President Emmanuel Macron to row back from his current line on fish”, Wickham adds.
EU officials are speculating that the threat to quit the talks is mere theatre, with another unnamed source telling London Playbook that “Johnson walks away loudly over a load of nothing, comes back claiming he’s scored a victory, then signs up to the deal that was on the table all along. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before”.
Indeed, while “Downing Street will need to appear tough by pushing back against an immediate resumption of the trade and security negotiations, sources on both sides expect the current suspension to be short”, with talks kicking off again within days, reports The Guardian.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
5 hilariously spirited cartoons about the spirit of Christmas
Cartoons Artists take on excuses, pardons, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Inside the house of Assad
The Explainer Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, ruled Syria for more than half a century but how did one family achieve and maintain power?
By The Week UK Published
-
Sudoku medium: December 22, 2024
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Will Starmer's Brexit reset work?
Today's Big Question PM will have to tread a fine line to keep Leavers on side as leaks suggest EU's 'tough red lines' in trade talks next year
By The Week UK Published
-
France's Macron vows to finish out term
Speed Read French President Emmanuel Macron rejected calls to step down and said he will name a new government in the coming days
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
French government poised to fall amid budget fight
Speed Read Far-right and leftist opposition parties both filed motions of no confidence against Prime Minister Michel Barnier
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will Donald Trump wreck the Brexit deal?
Today's Big Question President-elect's victory could help UK's reset with the EU, but a free-trade agreement with the US to dodge his threatened tariffs could hinder it
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is the next Tory leader up against?
Today's Big Question Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will have to unify warring factions and win back disillusioned voters – without alienating the centre ground
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Was Georgia's election stolen?
Today's Big Question The incumbent Georgian Dream party seized a majority in the disputed poll, defying predictions
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published