Brexit talks 'will be over in days unless the EU realises Britain is serious about no-deal'

The Brexit negotiations will be over in days unless the EU realises Britain is serious about no-deal, government sources have warned. The eighth round of talks with Brussels begin on Tuesday, with progress crucial if the two sides are to finally reach an agreement. It comes as the Telegraph reported on Saturday that the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier is to be sidelined in a bid to break the deadlock. But as the deadline on the discussions fast approaches, No 10 insiders say there will be no deal unless the bloc shows “more realism” on the “scale of the change that results from our departure”. They have accused the EU of blindly “following a self-imposed doctrine of parallelism” without realising that what they are asking for is “completely at odds with what the British people voted for, twice”. They also claim the European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, has been stalling progress by refusing the UK’s offer of allowing them to share a consolidated text with the 27 remaining member states. A source close to the negotiations said: “We intensified the talks in July in order to reach a broad outline of an agreement this summer. “Due to the EU’s repeated refusal to accept that in key areas we need to do things in our own way, reflecting our new status as a sovereign, independent country, those difficult discussions are ongoing. “We now face a critical round of negotiations in London. We will continue to set out our reasonable arguments, which have remained the same since talks began in February - that we want an agreement based on precedent. It’s time the EU accepted that so we can move on.”