Theresa May is expected to arrive back in Downing Street on Thursday as ministers spend the week fleshing out details of their hopes for Britain’s future with the EU after Brexit.
The Government will spell out its aims for new customs arrangements after the UK has quit the bloc in documents released by Brexit Secretary David Davis.
A position paper on the fraught issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is also due to be published later this week.
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier visits the Irish border (PA)
It comes as Mrs May is expected to be back at her desk on Thursday after holidays in Europe totalling around three weeks.
The Prime Minister enjoyed a break in Italy lasting nearly a week at the end of July and is now away with husband Philip in Switzerland.
The Government has faced complaints from Brussels over a lack of clarity on the British negotiating position on Brexit.
Downing Street said it was clear the talks had shown that the divorce could only be settled with in light of the future relationship with the EU.
One year since @dexeugov was established, here's how we've been working to form a deep and special partnership with the EU pic.twitter.com/wn9j7IdL5e
— Exiting the EU Dept (@DExEUgov) July 13, 2017
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We had the first rounds of the negotiation and those talks have shown that many of the withdrawal questions can only be settled in light of the future partnership, so now is the time to set out our approach to that partnership to inform the upcoming negotiations and to provide citizens and businesses at home and across Europe with a deeper understanding of our thinking.”
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is reported to have warned his first two rounds of talks with Mr Davis, covering the opening issues of the Irish border, the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and Britain’s “divorce bill”, had made limited progress.
"This week shows that we progress better when our respective positions are clear" @MichelBarnier after the 2nd round of #Brexit negotiations pic.twitter.com/1lQte3wROT
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) July 20, 2017
Meanwhile, The Times said the slow progress so far had led to complaints in Whitehall that senior officials were now trying to rush through decisions in an attempt to break the policy logjam.
There were said to be concerns that Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood and the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU were railroading issues through at a time when many ministers were away, leading to poor decision-making.
But following a summer marked by speculation over a possible leadership challenge and jostling for position among senior ministers over Brexit, there was some respite for the Prime Minister with an apparent truce between two of the leading protagonists.
The Chancellor signed up to a joint statement with Liam Fox (PA)
Chancellor Philip Hammond, who favours a “soft”, pro-business Brexit, and the Brexiteer International Development Secretary Liam Fox signed up to a joint statement at the weekend agreeing that there would have to be a transition period after Britain has left the EU.
They agreed that while the measure was necessary to ensure there was no “cliff-edge” break for businesses, it would be time-limited and that Britain would leave the EU single market and the customs union when it left the bloc.
A year after UK voted to leave the EU, optimism about the #FutureofEurope is increasing. https://t.co/o7iCr7Gkku #Eurobarometer #Brexit pic.twitter.com/9w0zLL7zPv
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) August 2, 2017
Senior Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin welcomed unity in the Cabinet and questioned why the EU would not treat the UK the same as other countries who have no free trade deal with the bloc but have agreements over aviation services, customs facilitation and product recognition.
Mr Jenkin, chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Why wouldn’t they afford us the same kind of reasonable arrangements unless they want to punish us?
“And if they want to punish us, should we be intimidated by their determination to punish us? Are they such a dysfunctional and destructive organisation that they would punish themselves as well as us by imposing such a ridiculous scenario – and of course they won’t.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel