David Frost on Saturday resigned from his post as British chief negotiator of Task Force Europe with immediate effect, topping a torrid week for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after a party rebellion on new COVID-19 curbs and by-election humiliation.
Frost, a trusted ally of the prime minister, sent his resignation letter following reports that he was to leave his post next month.
“It is disappointing that this plan has become public this evening and in the circumstances I think it is right for me to write to step down with immediate effect,” he said in the letter, published by Johnson’s Downing
The UK on Friday rejected EU proposals to streamline the trade of goods in Northern Ireland as insufficient, further aggravating a standoff between the two sides and bringing the prospect of a post-Brexit trade dispute closer.
The British government said after unsuccessful talks between British Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe David Frost and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, who oversees post-Brexit relations with the UK, that the EU offers to revamp the Northern Ireland deal, which the 27-nation bloc saw as far-reaching and unprecedented, “did not currently deal effectively with the fundamental difficulties.”
Beyond rejecting his proposals, Sefcovic said that
Britain’s Brexit minister was yesterday due in Paris for talks on a fishing rights crisis that has further strained already tense relations.
The meeting comes a day after a French court released a British trawler impounded for a week as part of the deepening dispute.
British Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe David Frost is to sit down with French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune to continue negotiations after several days of tense exchanges.
Frost is a staunch defender of Brexit, while Beaune is a close ally of French President Emmanuel Macron, who is not shy of making clear his
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday backed away from his imminent threat to punish the UK for restricting the access of French fishing boats to British waters, saying he would give negotiations more time.
“The British are going to come back to us tomorrow [yesterday] with further proposals,” Macron told reporters in Glasgow, Scotland, as a French deadline for retaliatory action approached.
“We’ll see where we are at the end of the day. We won’t be bringing in sanctions while we’re negotiating,” he said.
Macron’s decision followed a day of tense negotiations.
France had threatened to introduce additional customs controls on goods entering from