Brexit news latest: German minister backs Theresa May's Chequers deal but calls for more concessions

A German minister today backed Theresa May’s Chequers deal for opening up talks but warned there would have to be more concessions before a final Brexit deal can be reached.

Stephan Mayer said that Britain would come under fresh pressure to agree to close ties with the EU on services as well as in the trading of goods.

The interior minister’s intervention, though, signals that the Prime Minister might be able to get EU leaders to lean on Brussels to be more flexible in its negotiating stance.

“I hope there is constructive willingness on both sides,” he told BBC radio.

The MP, from the CSU party based in Bavaria where businesses do a large volume of trade with the UK, described the Chequers deal as “very appealing and a very interesting approach”. He added: “We should be open now. Prime Minister Theresa May did a marvellous job in order to advance this plan.” But he also emphasised: “Certainly the Chequers plan won’t be the final result of the negotiations.

“There is always this argument of cherry-picking... we will discuss very intensively if it is possible to negotiate and include a free trade agreement on trade but not on services. This will be a very crucial point.”

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is in Berlin today, urging his German counterpart Heiko Maas to “show much more flexibility and creativity” to avoid a “No deal by accident” situation post-Brexit. Mrs May, Mr Hunt, Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Sajid Javid are among the senior ministers who will tour European capitals this summer to try to persuade national governments to move towards accepting Britain’s demands on Brexit.

The Prime Minister was today holding a Cabinet meeting in Gateshead as she also seeks to sell her Chequers deal at home, against sizeable opposition from many MPs who believe it is already dead in the water. She maintained that Brexit would deliver benefits to the North-East to boost the Northern Powerhouse economic drive. The Chequers agreement would keep close links on trade in goods with the EU but allow the UK to break away on services.

However, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is said to have rejected Mrs May’s proposals for the City’s future relationship with the EU.

The Financial Times reported that he told EU European affairs ministers that the Chequers’ proposal for an enhanced “equivalence” model would undermine Brussels’ decision-making autonomy.

Meanwhile, Ryanair raised its concerns about a hard Brexit and the risk of it being “underestimated” as it announced that first-quarter profits had fallen 20 per cent to £285 million, blaming lower fares, higher oil prices and pilot costs. “It is likely that in the event of a hard Brexit our UK shareholders will be treated as non-EU,” the airline said.