Patel says on Brexit: we're in 'tunnel' of negotiations

 

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel speaks, October 1, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom will work flat out for a Brexit trade deal and the two sides are in “tunnel” negotiations but if a deal with the European Union is not possible then the country will be prepared, interior minister Priti Patel said on Thursday.

 

“First of all, the prime minister and the government, we’ve all been very clear we are not walking away, we will continue to negotiate to get this free-trade agreement,” Patel told LBC radio.

 

“We are in that tunnel of negotiation and our teams continue to work incredibly hard,” said Patel, whose official title is Home Secretary.

The “tunnel” is a term for an intense final stage of secretive, make-or-break negotiations.

 

Patel said negotiators were working “flat out” to secure a deal, but the government was very clear it would not compromise the country’s independence or sovereignty.

 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the two sides had moved closer to clinching a trade deal.

 

“I cannot tell you whether there will be a deal or not. But I can tell you that there is a path to an agreement now. The path may be very narrow but it is there,” von der Leyen told the European Parliament.

 

Britain formally left the EU on Jan. 31 but has been in a transition period since then under which rules on trade, travel and business remain unchanged. It finally exits the bloc’s single market and customs union on Dec. 31.

 

Failure to agree a deal would erect trade barriers between the EU and Britain, snarl borders, send shockwaves through financial markets and cause chaos in supply chains across Europe as it also struggles with COVID-19.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-17

 

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She has a lovely face but the mind of Satan.

 

So sad. 

Just go away and take the non-metric system and filthy food with you ... 

10 minutes ago, Liverpoolfan said:

She has a lovely face but the mind of Satan. 

I was startled that she could negociate with a foreign state completely out of control. OK she was fired from her post as a foreign secretary, but seriously, she should have been sent to a dark cell in the tower of London... 

 

The British system in which all members of the government must be MP oblige governments to pick up ministers from a very reduced pool and they have immunity so they are not accountable (is it ?). 

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

We are in that tunnel of negotiation and our teams continue to work incredibly hard,”

 

to get the Eurostar running again after those bloody French farmers blocked their end of the tunnel .. 

21 hours ago, Liverpoolfan said:

She has a lovely face but the mind of Satan.

 

So sad. 

Strange comment. Are you OK ?

22 hours ago, Liverpoolfan said:

She has a lovely face but the mind of Satan.

 

So sad. 

"Lovely face"!!

That smug smirk makes her look like a lizard.

Yes she does have the mind of Satan.

23 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Strange comment. Are you OK ?

Im fine me yeah.

 

are you ok?

The question is: is there light at the end of it? The way this is being dragged out, it must be the longest tunnel ever. 

appears to flooding from both ends..

The times negotiations in the minds of the British was: WE will dictate the conditions, the others have to accept, and when they are very humble enough, maybe we might give them some extra crumbs of the table, and if not, we will send out gunboats, is already a century long history.

3 hours ago, puipuitom said:

The times negotiations in the minds of the British was: WE will dictate the conditions, the others have to accept, and when they are very humble enough, maybe we might give them some extra crumbs of the table, and if not, we will send out gunboats, is already a century long history.

Whereas the EU thought YOU would dictate the conditions and UK would have to accept. How has that turned out for you?

 

Looks like the gun boats will be sent out to protect our waters now. I hear they will be requested to also protect Irish waters from EU fish thieves. 

15 minutes ago, Loiner said:

Whereas the EU thought YOU would dictate the conditions and UK would have to accept. How has that turned out for you?

 

Looks like the gun boats will be sent out to protect our waters now. I hear they will be requested to also protect Irish waters from EU fish thieves. 

You really do have a bizarre obsession with fish ! 
 

I note recent unanswered questions have been a tad difficult for you but here’s an easy one, I would hope, is fish more important to the well being of the U.K. than unfettered access to the single market ? 
 

Only tonight it’s Boris who has been given that very ultimatum - right now he will be panicking like <deleted> that he’s swapped some cod for a huge trade arrangement !! 

1 hour ago, Bruntoid said:

You really do have a bizarre obsession with fish ! 
 

I note recent unanswered questions have been a tad difficult for you but here’s an easy one, I would hope, is fish more important to the well being of the U.K. than unfettered access to the single market ? 
 

Only tonight it’s Boris who has been given that very ultimatum - right now he will be panicking like <deleted> that he’s swapped some cod for a huge trade arrangement !! 

Not so much the fish, but i do love a gunboat.

 

Unfettered access is not something the EU appears willing to negotiate. For Boris it's either UK independence or EU rules for ever more. Simples. He's already told them the answer is WTO for the EU from 1.1.21 and as a final middle finger to Macron, no fish either. 

2 hours ago, Bruntoid said:

You really do have a bizarre obsession with fish ! 
 

I note recent unanswered questions have been a tad difficult for you but here’s an easy one, I would hope, is fish more important to the well being of the U.K. than unfettered access to the single market ? 
 

Only tonight it’s Boris who has been given that very ultimatum - right now he will be panicking like <deleted> that he’s swapped some cod for a huge trade arrangement !! 

 

  E.U Countries should no longer have the right to fish in non E.U Countries waters .

Unfair demands from the E.U and the UK is quite right not to accept 

1.1.2021 here we come ????