Bank of England ‘warns City to brace for Brexit trade talks to FAIL’

The Bank of England has warned the City to brace for Brexit trade talks to fail, it was claimed today.

Governor Andrew Bailey is said to have delivered the message in a call with industry chiefs this week.

The alert came amid rising concern among businesses about the deadlock in negotiations. Nissan has suggested its Sunderland plant will ‘not be sustainable’ unless there are zero tariffs in future.

According to Sky News, the Brexit situation was ‘the number one agenda item’ for Mr Bailey’s discussions with banks yesterday. 

City minister John Glen told a webinar today that that the UK’s financial services industry is ‘world class’ and ready for any Brexit outcome.

‘I continue to believe that we are still well placed as a sector, whatever the specific outcomes are of negotiations ahead of us in the second half of this year,’ he said.

Downing Street has accused the EU of wishful thinking for suggesting the UK is bound to back down over access to fishing waters and following Brussels standards.

As the latest round of trade talks began, No10 said the bloc had failed to acknowledge that Britain is now independent.

UK chief negotiator David Frost and counterpart Michel Barnier are holding meetings online after the last round of talks ended in stalemate.

The two sides must make progress ahead of a summit this month between Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, but the PM has threatened to walk away from talks if there is no prospect of an agreement by then. 

It was claimed yesterday that the UK would be willing to compromise on access to its fishing waters and ‘level playing field’ trade rules if the EU agreed to scale back its demands.

‘There is only one way to get things moving and that is for the UK side to move and then, as Frost knows full well, the EU will move too,’ a senior EU diplomatic source told The Times.

But the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘This is wishful thinking by the EU.

‘We have always been clear there is no question of splitting the difference on level playing field and fish. 

‘We are not compromising on those because our position on these is fundamental to an independent country. 

‘Any agreement has to deal with this reality.’ 

The spokesman said there had to be a ‘balanced solution’ that reflected the ‘political reality’ on both sides, adding: ‘What we cannot do is agree to any EU demands for us to give up our rights as an independent state.’