Barnier did not say that UK Brexit proposals are dead

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier did not tell British MPs that the U.K.’s Brexit proposals were “dead,” contrary to a Labour MP’s recollection of a meeting in Brussels Monday.

The claim — which is significant because it suggested that Theresa May’s strategy in the negotiations is already fatally undermined — emerged in questioning of Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab at a separate committee hearing in Westminster Wednesday.

Politico

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, who was present at the Barnier meeting, reported that the chief negotiator had said in French “les propositions sonts mortes [the proposals are dead].”

But a transcript of the Brussels meeting published Friday does not record Barnier using those words, despite being asked three times by different MPs if the U.K.’s white paper was “dead.” Instead he adopted similar language to his previous statements on the unacceptability to the EU27 of the “facilitated customs arrangement” — under which the U.K. would collect import tariffs on the EU’s behalf — and the proposed “common rule book” for goods and agri-food. He did, however, praise parts of the U.K.’s plan.

Politico