Germany claims Boris Johnson is holding up Brexit by blocking ‘divorce bill’ offer

Boris Johnson is stalling Brexit talks over his opposition to the UK ‘divorce bill’ offer to the EU, according to an ally of German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Michael Fuchs, deputy chairman of Mrs Merkel’s CDU/CSU group in the German parliament, said the Foreign Secretary believes the offer Theresa May has made is “too much”.

Mr Fuchs said he thought the Prime Minister would bring forward proposals on Britain’s financial obligations that could break the deadlock in negotiations if she was not plagued by “internal trouble” in the Conservative Party.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I know there are internal problems, whatever she is offering, Boris Johnson is saying it’s too much.”

He went on: “I don’t know what his influence (is), it seems to be pretty strong because otherwise she would come up with other proposals I guess and the problem is she has internal trouble in the Tories.”

But asked if Mr Johnson should be sacked, he said: “Of course not.

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“I am critical, because what he said – not a single cent to the EU – it’s of course not acceptable because you know what kind of duties you have, I mean it’s all on the table.”

Mr Fuchs said Mrs May’s proposal in her Florence speech last month that Britain would pay contributions to the Brussels budget agreed in 2014 and which runs to 2020 of around £18 billion (around 20 billion euro) did not go far enough, as it does not include an offer to pay the pensions of EU bureaucrats, thought to run to billions of pounds.

Mr Fuchs spoke after the PM attended a working dinner in Brussels with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and chief negotiator Michel Barnier which offered little sign of tangible progress.

While they agreed to “accelerate” efforts to find a Brexit deal, there was no indication the EU side was ready to revise its view that the talks still had not made sufficient progress for them to move forward to the second phase – including a free trade deal – with Britain’s divorce bill a key stumbling block.

Mr Fuchs added: “You have to accept that there are a lot of things to be paid.

“Let me just say – pensions, which is not solved.

“This problem has to be solved and the UK has to come up with decent proposals.”