THE EU has threatened to pull out of post-Brexit trade deal talks unless the UK agrees to compromise.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned his UK counterpart David Frost that without a major negotiating shift by Downing Street within the next 48 hours he will abandon Brexit talks in London this weekend.
Such a move would be the biggest setback yet for hopes of a UK-EU trade deal with just 36 days to go before the end of the Brexit transition period.
The news comes as Brexit border control tests sparked three-hour lorry queues along the M20 motorway in Kent.
French authorities yesterday trialled a new system at the Channel Tunnel, conducting checks on the British side of the border rather than in France – a move that forms part of the new border checks that will take place after the Brexit transition period ends on December 31.
As a result, lorries were left queuing in three miles of gridlock, forcing entry and exit slip roads to close due to the number of HGVs parked on the hard shoulder – although the chaos cleared by mid-afternoon.
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