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Our Politics Live blog flags up that Michael Gove has played down the prospect of te Brexit trade deal being finalised at tonight’s Brussels dinner.
EU officials have also been stressing that Boris Johnson and Ursula Von Der Leyen will look for a reason to “move forward hopefully”, rather than actually agreeing a deal over pudding.
I’m hopeful that the prime minister will be able to lay out, over the course of dinner, where movement is required. The conversation between the prime minister and the president tonight, I hope, will create further political momentum, which will make sure that we do reach an agreement.
It’s clear that some political impetus will be required for the talks to make any more progress. If we can make progress at a political level it may allow Lord Frost and his team to resume negotiations over the coming days. But we must be realistic that an agreement may not be possible as we will not compromise on reclaiming UK sovereignty.
The pound is continuing to climb, now up almost a cent against the US dollar today at $1.345.
That’s its highest level this week, since worries about the UK and EU would fail to reach a trade deal began to rise.
Ultimately it takes a little bit of politics at the end and both sides to move a little bit at the end. But I think that is possible,”
“Is (British Prime Minister) Boris Johnson willing to make concessions in those areas? I think he probably is…I think his natural instincts are actually much closer to the more liberal London mayor that he was than the more conservative Brexiteer.”