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Yesterday morning, briefings from both sides in the Brexit negotiations were confidently looking forward to announcing a deal on the phase 1 “divorce” package.

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I am disappointed for all those who have worked hard in Leeds, and the other contending towns, to hear this news. But there is a degree of hollowness to those in the government who are claiming this is a total surprise or a vindictive move.

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I was delighted to be invited to speak at the Brexit and Agriculture event in York last week organised by the National Farmers’ Union and the European Parliament UK office. It was extremely instructive to talk with farmers, NFU officials and agriculture students about their concerns regarding the Brexit negotiations. Over the course of the event and the discussions that followed, four main themes emerged.

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TOPLINE: A “disorderly Brexit” is now seen as almost inevitable by the world’s biggest banks — ranking on a par with a global cyber-attack as a threat to the international financial system, the City of London Corporation has warned. 

SUMMARY: In a letter to the chancellor sent on Friday, Catherine McGuinness, chairwoman of the policy and resources committee at the City’s ruling body, offers her “detailed observations on institutional concerns” following three days of meetings with Wall Street bosses and policymakers in New York and Washington DC. “Fears of a disorderly Brexit are increasing,” she writes. “There are concerns that US jobs and global financial stability are threatened.” 

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In his recent testimony to the House of Lords, Sir Ivan Rogers, former British Permanent Representative to the European Union, criticized as premature and ill-prepared the Prime Minister’s triggering last March of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. This is unfair to Theresa May. No different date for the beginning of the Brexit negotiations could or would have rendered them any less painful for the British participants. No amount of extra preparation on the British side before triggering Article 50 could or would have resolved the numerous internal contradictions of the Brexit project.

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TOPLINE: The UK’s Brexit minister has rejected EU warnings that Northern Ireland may need to remain in Europe’s single market and customs union after Brexit, saying the government will not accept any solution to the border issue that threatens Britain’s “constitutional and economic integrity”.

SUMMARY: Speaking after two days of Brexit negotiations in Brussels that laid bare the gulf that remains on key divorce issues, David Davis said that “frank discussions” had been had with the European Commission on Ireland, while insisting that the question will only be solved once talks begin on a future EU-UK relationship.

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TOPLINE: Brussels is giving Britain two to three weeks to set out how much it is prepared to pay in the Brexit divorce settlement, warning that the EU will otherwise struggle to prepare this year for a transition deal the UK badly wants.

SUMMARY: According to the informal deadline, unless London makes a big financial offer this month, the bloc may be unable to adopt guidelines for the transition talks at a crucial summit in December.

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TOPLINE: In a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the UK House of Lords' EU Financial Affairs Sub-Committee is calling for urgent agreement of a post-Brexit standstill transition period for the financial services sector.

SUMMARY: The Committee wishes to bring the Chancellor's attention to the weight of evidence the Committee has received during its current inquiry into the future of financial regulation and supervision following Brexit.

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