UK may increase offer for EU Brexit divorce bill - report

Prime Minister Theresa May is mulling a potential £20m increase to the Brexit 'divorce bill' to the European Union in order to move talks onto the next stage, according to a newspaper report on Thursday.

A 10 Downing Street spokesman describes the report from the Sun newspaper as "speculation", a dismissal that sometimes in the past has proved to be as good as a confirmation.

Last week chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said the UK has only two weeks left to agree to a financial settlement.

Barnier said negotiations with Brexit secretary David Davis have made “some progress” in the latest round of talks this month but not quite the "sufficient progress" that is demanded by the EU leaders in order to move talks onto the matter of trade.

For his part last week, Davis spoke of a "consolidation" of the progress made during his meetings with Barnier, with the UK being "clear" that it is "willing to engage in discussions in a flexible and constructive way to reach the progress needed".

The final divorce bill sought by the EU is not clear, with reports suggesting it could between £40bn and £60bn.

European leaders were scheduled to convene for a summit on 14 December to decide whether sufficient progress had been made to justify moving on to the second phase of talks.