Boris Johnson: Brexit deal is ‘glad tidings of great joy’

Britain and the EU have sealed a post-Brexit trade agreement after nine months of fraught negotiations. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clinched the deal on Christmas Eve, haggling over fishing rights. The mood in Downing Street was upbeat, as Mr Johnson declared Britain had secured its negotiating objectives.

He said: “We have taken back control of our laws and our destiny.

“It is a good deal for all of Europe”.

Back in Brussels, Ms von der Leyen was slightly more sombre, saying one of her main feelings was “relief” that “we can finally put Brexit behind us”.

In an infographic posted by the European Commission yesterday, though, Brussels hinted Brexit talks might be far from over.

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The deal ensures tariff-free trade for goods will continue and details how the two economies will interact on issues ranging from security cooperation to fishing rights but it is not entirely clear how it will affect financial services.

Both sides had agreed during the negotiations to discuss financial services separately.

The Prime Minister said there was “some good language about equivalence for financial services” but he added the access negotiated for finance firms was “perhaps not as much as we would have liked”.

In the infographic posted on Twitter by the Commission, the EU suggested a deal on financial services could be indeed agreed further down the line.

In the “potential EU unilateral measures” section, Brussels wrote: “Equivalences in financial services.”

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In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Alan Winters, director of the Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex, echoed the sentiment, as he noted it might take a long time before the “future relationship” is finalised.

Mr Winters predicted a series of mini-deals that fall outside the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will have to be negotiated well after the end of the transition period.

He said: “If we get a deal, we will start negotiating again with the EU on all sorts of things that lie outside the FTA or at least that are in that grey area.

“Things for instance like airline landing, managing air traffic…

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“I think that if we do get a deal now, there will be much more flexibility and we will try to negotiate around the edges.”

Professor Winters added: “I am almost certain that the trade deal will allow us to add new issues into it.

“For example, we will have a provision whereby we haven’t achieved much on business services but we will set up a system that allows us to go back and renegotiate it.

“It will take a while as the politics here are complex.”

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