Chances of Brexit deal on Brexit ‘stand at over 50%’ EU officials say

Britain is heading for the “catastrophe” of a no deal Brexit, according to top EU officials.

Jonathan Lis, deputy director of pressure group British Influence, posted in a series of tweets that the likelihood of the UK not securing a deal with the EU stands at “over 50%”.

Mr Lis said that he had returned from meetings in Brussels with “extremely bad” news – and claimed that the UK Government is “in denial” about how talks are going.

He wrote: “Senior EU officials now putting chances of no-deal at over 50%, and making detailed impact assessments about what it means for EU.”

On the thorny issue of the divorce bill, Mr Lis claimed that the EU will not go ahead with trade talks in December if Theresa May does not budge on how much the UK pays.

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“EU went as far as it could in Oct. Nobody’s asking for precise figure, just specific commitments. €60bn the ballpark figure.

“UK Government knows all this, incidentally. They’re in denial about it. But what happens if they test EU anyway?

“If no agreement in Dec, next opportunity to kick-start talks is in March. That leaves *7 months* to agree deal. They can’t, and won’t.”

Mr Lis urged the UK to “prevent what’s otherwise an unavoidable catastrophe” by revoking Article 50 and not going ahead with Brexit.

A Government spokesman said they were “confident of securing a deal which is in the interests of both the UK as a whole and our European partners”.