The political agreement about a trade deal between the UK and the EU, if one is agreed, will be as detailed as a ‘heads of terms in a commercial agreement’, the Chancellor Philip Hammond has told Peers.
Giving evidence to the Lords economic affairs committee this week, Hammond said the agreement would have to be ‘specific enough to satisfy both parliaments, and… specific enough for the negotiators on both sides to be able to work up a text’.
He confirmed that the EU may schedule an emergency summit for a Brexit deal to be finalised. EU ministers are reported to have expressed doubt that they will be able to agree a deal with the UK at the October EU summit, and to be considering meeting again with the UK in mid-November to clinch the deal. The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said agreement could be reached then if both sides are ‘realistic’.
In August, the Law Society published economic forecasts showing nearly £3bn could be lost from turnover in the UK legal sector by 2025 if the UK left the EU with no deal.
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