David Davis has accused the EU of trying to drag out the Brexit talks to try to get more money out of the UK, as he urged other countries to allow negotiations to move on to discussions about trade.
The Brexit secretary said the UK was ready to start discussions on the future relationship, as a deal must be struck before exit day in March 2019.
But he suggested the EU was deliberately refusing to move on to talk about trade and transition in order to get the UK to concede it will pay more money as part of its financial settlement.
“They are using time pressure to get more money out of us. Bluntly, that is what’s going on. It’s obvious to anybody,” he told MPs.
The UK is lobbying hard for EU leaders to widen the scope of talks when they meet for a summit in Brussels on Friday, as discussions are currently limited to EU citizens, Northern Ireland and the financial settlement.
However, the issue of money appears to be causing the biggest deadlock between the UK and EU, which led Theresa May to make a last-minute trip to Brussels on Monday for dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission.
Arriving in Luxembourg on Tuesday for a Brexit meeting with 27 EU ministers, excluding the UK, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said it “takes two” to speed up Brexit talks.
Barnier repeated his warning that time was slipping away. “It is very important to understand that time is passing very quickly. The clock is ticking very fast.”
Asked whether Monday night’s Brussels dinner had changed anything, he implied the talks remained at an impasse.
Davis claimed that a large number of EU leaders were keen to give Barnier permission to open up talks to trade and a transition period but some were holding out.“I said three weeks ago I am ready to accelerate the rhythm, but to accelerate it takes two. It was a good working dinner and what we told to the prime minister May is just that is very important to maintain this constructive dynamic in the coming two months.”
“We must be able to talk about the future. We all must recognise that we are reaching the limits of what we can achieve without consideration of the future relationship,” he told MPs. “At the European summit later this week, I hope the leaders of the 27 will recognise the progress made and provide Michel Barnier with a mandate to build on the momentum and spirit of cooperation we now have. Doing so will allow us to best achieve our joint objectives and move towards a deal.”
Speaking in the House of Commons, Davis suggested he was confident of some progress on the issue soon, saying: “Let’s just see what the European council comes up with on Friday, shall we?”
He also set out what had been achieved in five rounds of talks so far, but said it was difficult to talk further about Northern Ireland without discussing trade.
On the rights of EU citizens, he said there was agreement on a large number of areas but there were outstanding issues with professional qualifications, the right to vote in local elections, the right to onward movement, the right to return, the right to export a range of benefits and the right to bring in future family members.
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said Davis was failing to acknowledge the “seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in” and called on both sides to show more flexibility to break the deadlock.
“Every passing week without progress on transitional arrangements make things worse, not better,” he said.
Starmer accused the government of sounding too enthusiastic about failing to strike an agreement with the EU, saying “only fantastists and fanatics talk up no deal”.
Davis responded by saying Starmer had no strategy of his own and denied accusations that he was talking up the prospect of not achieving a deal. But he also said it was “scaremongering” for the Resolution Foundation thinktank to say no deal would lead to a sharp increase in prices for food and other goods.
May’s spokesman said the prime minister had updated her cabinet earlier on Tuesday before the European council summit, explaining that she believed her speech in Florence last month “had created momentum”.
There would be a time during the summit “where she would set out the UK’s position in relation to the UK leaving the European Union”, the spokesman said. “She said that the Florence speech had had a positive impact on negotiations going forward.”
In recent days May has made calls to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and attended a 90-minute dinner in Brussels with Juncker and Barnier.
However, a joint statement from Juncker and the prime minister following their dinner gave no indication of any movement in the British government’s favour, but instead included reference to the sequenced approach to the talks insisted upon by Brussels.
“The prime minister and the president of the European commission reviewed the progress made in the article 50 negotiations so far and agreed that these efforts should accelerate over the months to come. The working dinner took place in a constructive and friendly atmosphere,” it said.
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