Europe's leaders urge Brexit clarity: 'We need to know what the UK wants to do'

Europe's leaders have revealed frustrations about Theresa May's Government's approach to Brexit, claiming there is a lack of clarity as a result of divisions within her administration.

Antonio Tajani, European Parliament president, said the situation was "not good" and "we need to know what the UK wants to do" as he restated Brussels' demands for a financial settlement which could be as high as £53 billion (60 billion euro).

Ahead of a meeting of European leaders on Thursday, Ireland's Leo Varadkar said they were still unclear about what the UK hoped to achieve in a Brexit deal.

Mr Varadkar told BBC's Spotlight: "It is very hard for us as European prime ministers to understand exactly what the UK wants the new relationship to look like."

Mr Tajani said the UK Government was "not realistic" in its approach to the financial settlement - the so-called divorce bill - and echoed Margaret Thatcher's language when she secured the British rebate.

"We need our money back, as Mrs Thatcher said 30 or 40 years ago. This is important for us," he told BBC's Newsnight.

"We need not one euro more, not one euro less."

The figure of around £18 billion (20 billion euro) that Mrs May was offering is "peanuts", he said, with "the real situation" being a sum of around £45- £53 billion (50-60 billion euro).

Differences within the Cabinet were illustrated on Tuesday as Home Secretary Amber Rudd suggested that a "no deal" scenario was "unthinkable", at least on security issues, while Brexit Secretary David Davis insisted the UK had to keep open the option of walking away from the talks.

There are also divisions over how close any future relationship will be, leading Mr Tajani to say: "In the Conservative Party there are different positions. This is not good for good work in the next months."

In a sign of the economic risk caused by the uncertainty in the Brexit process, a senior City figure warned that firms would have no choice but to move jobs to other European Union countries in order to ensure they can keep trading unless progress was made.

Writing in the Telegraph, London Stock Exchange Group Xavier Rolet suggested that jobs would be lost overseas unless details of a transitional period were agreed by the end of the year.

"Businesses cannot risk a cliff-edge being so near before they start accelerating the migration of functions away from the UK to ensure they can participate in the global market," he said.