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Prime Minister Boris Johnson is understood to have issued an ultimatum to the EU, warning Brussels chiefs the UK is prepared to walk away without a security or trade deal in September if the bloc continues to drag its feet. The warning comes as it emerged the Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey urged bank bosses to step up preparations for a no deal Brexit, with the nation unshackling itself from the bloc on WTO terms.

Express.co.uk is asking you should the UK walk away from negotiations in September if progress has not been made?

Talks on a future trading relationship between Britain and the EU entered a fourth round this week, which will end on Friday.

But talks between the two sides, aimed at setting out a new future with Britain outside the European Union for the first time in 47 years, have all but stalled.

Britain formally departed the EU on January 31, three and a half years after the momentous referendum vote, and the transition period – during which Britain remains in the EU single market and customs union – is due to finish at the end of this year.

Mr Johnson has until the end of June to ask for an extension and has repeatedly ruled this out despite repeated demands from Remainers and Brussels.

Britain wants binding commitments from the EU on financial market access to avoid the country’s finance industry suddenly being cut off from the bloc, which is a major export market for British financial services.

But the EU has said that British banks, insurers and asset managers face the limited kind of access given by the bloc to the US, Japan and Singapore.

This week it emerged BoE boss Mr Bailey had held a conference call on Tuesday with Britain’s biggest banks in which he emphasised the need to step up their plans for a no-deal Brexit.

The BoE said: “As we have said previously, the possibility that negotiations between the UK and EU over a future trading relationship might not conclude in a deal is one of a number of outcomes that UK banks need to prepare for over the coming months.”

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A UK source close to negotiations previously told the Sunday Express “talks cannot go on forever.”

The source said: “The UK has to make sure businesses can prepare properly for what will happen at the end of the year. Traders can’t do that if the talks are continuing well into the autumn because they won’t know what to prepare for.

“What is clear is that the conventional approach will not get us much further. The EU needs to inject some political reality into its approach, and appreciate that they cannot use their usual tactic of delay to drag the talks into the autumn.

“October is too late. Our businesses need to know whether there is going to be a trade agreement before then to prepare for the end of transition.”

Mr Johnson’s spokesman urged companies on Wednesday to prepare for Britain’s leaving the EU single market and customs union at the end of the year regardless of the outcome of talks.

Some market participants, however, believe that the December transition deadline might get extended because of the new coronavirus pandemic, which slowed down Brexit negotiations. 

It comes after car giant Nissan has warned it will not be able to sustain operations at its Sunderland manufacturing plant if Brexit negotiations fail to establish a trade deal.

The 7,000 workers of the UK’s largest car manufacturing plant rejoiced last week after surviving a global cost-cutting restructuring that saw the closure of the Japanese firm’s Barcelona facility.

A Nissan spokesman said at the time that “Sunderland remained an important part of our plans for the European business”. 

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