
Theresa May-era civil servants are said to be frustrated that the Conservative government’s EU trade deal negotiating team will not consider an extension of the transition period.
Britain’s chief trade negotiator David Frost oversees a team of some 40 specialists comprised of Whitehall career bureaucrats and figures appointed by the Brexit-backing Conservative leadership.
Multiple sources are reported to have told the London financial newspaper City A.M. that the “true believers”, many of which came from the Vote Leave campaign group, are sticking by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s position that the UK will not seek to extend the transition period. They also are said to be prepared to walk away from the negotiating table if they cannot agree on a deal with Brussels.
This reportedly troubles the civil servants within the negotiating team. One source described them as “more or less the same group…that were there under the May years” and said that they “have very different attitudes from David Frost and the people he’s brought in around him”.
A source close to Mr Frost told the financial newspaper: “There is no debate about this issue and ministers continue to be clear that extending the transition period would prolong the negotiations and increase uncertainty, whilst also leaving us bound by EU legislation and obliged to make further payments into the EU budget.
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