Chances of Britain leaving EU without deal is '60-40'

London

BRITAIN is now likely to leave the European Union without a deal due to the "intransigence" of the EU, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told The Sunday Times.

The pro-Brexit minister said the chances of a no-deal Brexit were now "60-40", laying the blame on EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

"I think the intransigence of the commission is pushing us towards no deal," he told The Sunday Times. "If the EU decides that the theological obsession of the unelected is to take priority over the economic well-being of the people of Europe, then it's a bu-reaucrats' Brexit - not a people's Brexit - and there is going to be only one outcome."

He said Mr Barnier had rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's latest plan, agreed by her Cabinet, on the grounds that "we have never done it before".

It was therefore up to the EU to "show us one that they can suggest that would be acceptable to us," said Mr Fox. "It's up to the EU27 to deter-mine whether they want the EU Commission's ideological purity to be maintained at the expense of their real economies."

Mrs May met with French President Emmanuel Macron on the Mediterranean coast on Friday to lobby for her Brexit plan, which has divided her government and so far failed to win over EU negotiators. She has just a few months before an agreement on Britain's divorce from the EU - set for March 29, 2019 - must be forged in principle ahead of an EU summit in mid-October. AFP