Speculation is rising that Brexit talks could drag on past Christmas after Boris Johnson launched one final push for a trade deal.
EU rules in the UK will come crashing to an end on December 31 if there’s no trade pact - and it looks like talks could now go right to the wire.
Mr Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a more optimistic statement yesterday as they decided not to call off the talks.
The PM yesterday warned a no-deal Brexit was now the “most likely” outcome - but insisted officials will go the “extra mile” to try to thrash out a pact.
Unusually neither side has set a deadline for the new round of talks, which gets under way today.
And a government source indicated new talks would go on for days at least, not hours.
Even if a Brexit deal is agreed before Christmas Day in 10 days’ time, it would still need to be ratified by the UK and European Parliaments before December 31.
MPs have, highly unusually, still not been told their recess dates for the festive break.
And The Sun reported last week that plans have already been drawn up for Parliament to possibly sit over Christmas.
Business Secretary Alok Sharma today insisted “we don’t want to walk away from talks”.
Asked if they could go on until New Year’s Eve, he told BBC Breakfast: “Obviously we’ve always said the transition period ends at the end of December and we will not be continuing discussions beyond that.
“And of course any deal that we have would then have to go through Parliament so that really would be cutting it quite fine.
“But it’s also the case - and we’ve seen this in the past - that Parliament can move very quickly, can be very agile when it needs to be.”
Former chief whip Mark Harper, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour, said: “Many of us are fully anticipating it's entirely possible we might be returning to Parliament between Christmas and new year to scrutinise this and vote it through if a deal is done."
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was briefing diplomats from the 27 member states this morning as talks resumed.
The two main hold-ups are on fishing access and quotas, and the “level playing field” of how far the UK follows EU rules in future.
Ms von der Leyen has offered an olive branch, saying the UK will not have to automatically follow all future EU rules on areas like the environment in future.
Instead Britain could face tariffs on a case-by-case basis if and when the country decides to follow a different path.
But UK officials fear Britain could be stung with surprise "lightning tariffs" over which the country has no control.
Reports yesterday suggested the EU could climb down on this point and any tariffs would not be automatic.
Mr Barnier today told journalists he would deal with talks calmly and respectfully “until the very end”.
Arriving at his offices in Brussels, he said: “We've only been negotiating for nine months, we've needed at least five years for all the previous agreements.
“We are going to give every chance to this agreement... which is still possible.”
In early deals in London, the pound traded 1% higher to the dollar at $1.3359, having hit a high of $1.3384 in Asian trading hours.
Against the euro, it was 0.8% higher at 90.89 pence per euro.
