EU must back down over divorce bill, insists Davis

DAVID Davis yesterday warned European leaders not to expect any further concessions from Britain in the diplomatic wrangle over Brexit.

Speaking in Berlin, the EU Exit Secretary insisted the Government had gone far enough in offering to settle the multi-billion divorce bill and was now waiting for a response from Brussels.

He said: “I want them to compromise. Surprise, surprise, nothing comes for nothing in this world.”

His remarks were directed at German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, who are believed to be the main figures

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holding up the push towards a Brexit deal.

Mr Davis was believed to be lining up with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in resisting moves to offer Brussels an extra £20billion of UK taxpayers’ cash to try to break the deadlock.

It emerged yesterday that Mr Johnson has told Theresa May he cannot accept a further “unilateral” increase in the size of the divorce payment without a written guarantee from Brussels of a future trade deal.

In Berlin yesterday Mr Davis said: “Always in a negotiation you want the other side to compromise. I want them to compromise.

“Surprise, surprise, nothing comes for nothing in this world. But so far in this negotiation we’ve made quite a lot of compromises.”

Mr Davis pointedly singled out France and Germany as the main obstacles to allowing talks to move on to the crunch issue of trade.

He added: “To be clear, Germany and France are the most powerful players. So what they believe is very influential, sometimes decisively so. But it’s the whole of Europe decision, it’s a 27-country decision.”

Mr Davis also risked irritating Eurosceptics by confirming that Britain will remain within the jurisdiction of the EU’s Court of Justice immediately after Brexit in March 2019. He predicted that it will be phased out over the two-year transition period.

He said: “The ideal arrangement is it starts on the European Court and then we end up with an arbitration mechanism but that’s a negotiation still to start. What is clear is it starts up on that court.”

Mr Davis also confirmed he had no ambition to succeed Mrs May as prime minister and planned to quit the Government once Britain quits the EU.