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Former Brexit Party MEP Rupert Lowe heaped praise on Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator David Frost for refusing to budge to Mr Barnier’s demands, which has edged the UK closer to a no deal exit from the bloc. But he warned: “Barnier wants total humiliation for our country, anything less than that and he won’t be happy.
“Frost seems to be holding his nerve. Good on him,” in a Twitter post.
Brexit Party former MEP Martin Daubney told the EU the UK would not be “bullied”.
He tweeted: “It’s Brexit Groundhog Day again, as Barnier admits ‘no progress whatsoever’ has been made on fisheries ‘& the level playing field’ isn’t going away.
“Translation: he isn’t getting his own way, and the U.K. isn’t being bullied. Let’s go WTO!”
It comes as Mr Frost accused the EU of making post-Brexit negotiations “unnecessarily difficult” and warned “time is short for both sides”, as talks threatened to stall.
Speaking after the latest round of Brexit talks in Brussels, Mr Frost said he believes a trade deal is still possible but warned “there has been little progress” after seven rounds of talks.
He warned the Brussels bloc the EU would not back down on fishing and state aid regulations, despite its demands.
Meanwhile, a senior negotiating official hit back at the EU’s accusation of time-wasting in the post-Brexit negotiations, accusing the bloc’s position of having “frozen” progress.
They said: “The process block now is the EU’s insistence that we must accept their position on state aid and fisheries before we can talk about anything else.
“Obviously we’re not going to do that. So it’s frozen.
“That doesn’t seem to us to be sensible. We should be talking about the many other areas, some of which are productive, some of which are more difficult, but we are ready to talk about anything and it’s not us that’s slowing it down.”
Ex-Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib tweeted: “As @DavidGHFrost says a deal is still possible but only if the UK gives up its claim to be sovereign.
“For goodness sake stop this national humiliation and cease negotiations.”
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Speaking after two days of talks in Brussels, Mr Barnier said he was “disappointed” at the lack of progress during negotiations.
He said: “Those who were hoping for negotiations to move swiftly forward this week will have bee disappointed and unfortunately I too am frankly disappointed and concerned and surprised as well.
“Too often this week it felt as if we were going backwards more than forwards.
“Given the short time left, what I said in London in July remains true. Today at this stage, an agreement between the UK and the European Union seems unlikely.
“I simply do not understand why we are wasting valuable time.”
But UK commentator Darren Grimes hit back saying he was “delighted” Mr Barnier was “disappointed”.
He tweeted: “I’m delighted to learn that Barnier is “disappointed” by the lack of progress in the Brexit talks – on level playing field and fisheries.
“It means that our negotiators, for once, are refusing to allow them to place us over a barrel and tan our bums.”
Both sides accept time is running out to broker a deal before the transition period comes to a close at the end of the year.
Mr Frost said he believes an agreement can still be struck, but accused the EU of ruling out “any further substantive work” unless the UK accepts the bloc’s state aid rules and fisheries policy.
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