Donald Tusk scoffs at the ‘British sense of humour’ after David Davis called for Brexit compromise
2 min read
Donald Tusk shot back at David Davis today after the Brexit Secretary demanded more compromise from the EU in the Brexit negotiations.
The European Council president mocked the Cabinet minister for his “English sense of humour" as he laid down the gauntlet to Theresa May over the talks.
He gave Britain just two weeks to make “much more progress” on Ireland and the Brexit divorce bill or risk pushing talks on a future trade arrangement further into the future.
In Berlin today Mr Davis told the BBC the EU should “compromise” more in the talks, adding that “Nothing comes for nothing in this world.”
But asked about the comments today, the Brussels bigwig scoffed: "I really appreciate Mr Davis' English sense of humour."
Meanwhile, he heaped pressure on Mrs May as he revealed he will meet the Prime Minister for another crunch Brexit summit next Friday.
The pair met on the fringes of a jobs summit in Sweden amid desperation in Downing Street to end the stalemate and move onto trade talks.
At a press conference afterwards Mr Tusk said his side was ready to begin trade negotiations next month.
But he added: “In order to do that we need to see more progress from the UK side.”
“We need to see much more progress on Ireland and on the financial settlement,” he explained.
“In order to avoid any ambiguities about our calendar I made it very clear to the Prime Minister May that this progress needs to happen at the beginning of December at the latest.
But on his way out of the conference he said a December breakthrough "feels much safer" than it did before his head-to-head with Mrs May today, according to the Sun.
Meanwhile, a Downing Street spokesperson said: "In positive discussions, the two leaders spoke about the progress which had been made so far in the negotiations on citizens' rights, Northern Ireland and the financial settlement.
"Prime Minister May and President Tusk agreed that there is more work to be done and discussed how to take further steps forward together in advance of the European Council in December."
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