Jeremy Corbyn met EU’s Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier and European Union’s top civil servant Martin Selmayr.
FT reports that Jeremy Corbyn has insisted he is not carrying out Brexit backdoor negotiations with Brussels following meetings with the EU’s two most senior Brexit chiefs on Thursday.
The Labour leader was in the EU capital to meet Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, and Martin Selmayr, the EU’s top civil servant. During an “interesting” and “useful” meeting with Mr Barnier, Mr Corbyn said he did not bring up the government’s proposed future UK-EU trading relationship — known as Chequers — and Mr Barnier made no comment on Labour’s wish to retain the customs union and parts of the single market. “We are obviously not negotiating. We are not in government, we are the opposition”, Mr Corbyn told journalists after the meeting.
“It’s not a negotiation, it’s us informing him of what our views are and he telling us what the state of play was on the negotiations.” On Labour’s policy, Mr Corbyn added that Mr Barnier was “interested to know what our views are and the six tests we have laid down by which we will hold our government in future”.
The meeting between the leader of the opposition and Mr Barnier comes less than a week after Theresa May said talks with the EU27 had reached “an impasse” over the question of the Irish border. The prime minister is insistent that Northern Ireland cannot be part of a separate customs area than mainland Britain.
