RE: NEWS!15 Dec 2020 21:24
British MPs have been put on standby for an extended House of Commons sitting next week, with hopes rising at Westminster that a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU could be ready for approval before Christmas.
Downing Street and European diplomats insist negotiations are still stuck in key areas; one ally of Boris Johnson said there was “certainly no breakthrough” and that no-deal was still the most likely outcome.
But in London and Brussels the debate has turned to how any deal might be scrutinised ahead of the end of Britain’s post-Brexit transition period on January 1. Betting markets put the prospect of a deal at over 70 per cent.
Some Tory Eurosceptic MPs have indicated they could live with the deal taking shape, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, is clearing the decks to legislate on the details of a deal at breakneck speed.
Mr Rees-Mogg has not moved a “recess motion”, suggesting that plans for the House of Commons to rise for its Christmas break on Thursday have been scrapped.
The key has always been to make sure any deal is fair to both sides and doesn’t give one side undiluted power and is a relationship between two sovereign bodies
Andrea Leadsom, pro-Brexit former cabinet minister
“It’s highly likely we’ll be sitting next week,” said one senior government official. Although MPs would want to debate a possible no-deal outcome next week, ministers hope the extra time will be used to legislate for a deal.
One British official said that talks in Brussels last weekend had been “positive” and that progress had been made on resolving the biggest outstanding issue: a new level playing field to ensure fair competition.
Eurosceptic MPs said they could accept what the EU calls “a rebalancing mechanism” which would allow both sides to call foul if they felt they were being unfairly undercut on regulations.
The mechanism would involve an arbitration panel to decide whether any harms caused by regulatory divergence were serious and to ensure any punitive sanctions were proportionate.
Some Conservatives have called this a “freedom clause” because it would allow the UK to set its own regulatory course, albeit with the possibility of an orderly sanctions regime if the divergence became too great.
Andrea Leadsom, a pro-Brexit former cabinet minister, said she thought there would be a deal: “The key has always been to make sure that any deal is fair to both sides and doesn’t give one side undiluted power and is a relationship between two sovereign bodies.”
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