‘It’ll be curtains for the process’ if the Brexit talks don’t move on to trade and transition in December, according to one of those familiar with the UK government’s negotiating strategy.
In Downing Street, there is a feeling that Theresa May has twice made significant compromises—in the Florence speech and the enhanced financial offer the inner Cabinet agreed on Monday—and if the EU again pockets the concession and says still more is needed, it’ll be hard to see how the UK can stay at the table. Even one of the Cabinet Ministers most keen on a deal with the EU says that ‘we have to get through in December’.
It is, obviously, not just the money that the EU needs there to be ‘sufficient progress’ on in December, but citizens rights and the Irish border too. I understand that on the former, the inner Cabinet considered a role for the ECJ after Brexit on Monday.
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