Brexit deal possible in 6-8 weeks, says EU's Barnier
European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier said it was "realistic" to hope that a Brexit deal could be negotiated in "six to eight weeks”
He told a conference in Slovenia that a deal between the EU and UK was “realistic” and “possible” within eight weeks, Bloomberg reported, with the Frenchman saying that the Irish border and protection for names of food and agriculture products still needed to be sorted.
The pound spiked against the dollar immediately on release of the report, jumping 0.7% to 1.3016, climbing 0.4% versus the euro to 1.1221.
Earlier on Thursday, Theresa May was facing a warning that her Chequers blueprint for Brexit could force a “catastrophic split” in the Conservative party.
Former junior Brexit minister Steve Baker, who quit his role in July over the Chequers proposals, said the blueprint would face opposition from at least 80 Conservative MPs in the House of Commons who see the deal as keeping the UK bound too closely to Brussels.
“We are reaching the point now where it is extremely difficult to see how we can rescue the Conservative party from a catastrophic split if the Chequers proposals are carried forward. It is absolutely no pleasure whatsoever to me to acknowledge that,” Baker told the Press Association.
This weekend also saw the proposals face criticism from Boris Johnson, who is now widely acknowledged to be positioning himself to take the Prime Minister’s place and branded the plan “a suicide vest around the British constitution”.
Meanwhile, on the continent the heads of the EU’s 27 member states are preparing to meet in Salzburg next week where they will discuss updating their guidelines on Brexit negotiations.
Reports indicate that new guidelines will engage with May’s Chequers compromises, but no agreement is expected to be struck before the next formal EU summit in October
Preparations are also being made for a special Brexit summit the month after to address the most difficult outstanding issues, including the nature of any border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
A senior EU source quoted by The Times said the three summits in a row were intended to get everyone “on the same page” and that they “genuinely believed” that a deal could be done.
However, the same source added that the EU did not see the Chequers proposals as “stable politically”.
"Sterling has become very sensitive to positive Brexit news over the last couple of weeks, having spiked on a couple of occasions on reports that the UK will get a bespoke deal and that Angela Merkel is willing to accept less detail on future ties," said analyst Craig Erlam at Oanda.
"Clearly there is a feeling that a lot of Brexit pessimism and no deal risk has been priced in which is why we’re in a state of such sensitivity to any reports that indicate a breakthrough will come."
Erlam added that the pound was vulnerable to these comments being clarified or a caveat being attached that a no deal is also still very possible, as has been seen when previous apparently positive reports appeared.