Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, has been urged to quit by one Tory MPBritain and the European Union are locked in a stand-off after Brussels issued Downing Street with an ultimatum to withdraw a threat to renege on parts of the withdrawal agreement. After a tense meeting between the two sides in London, Maros Sefcovic, the commission’s vice-president, told Boris Johnson that he had three weeks to drop the proposals or Brussels would effectively break off negotiations on a free trade agreement. However, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office mininster, who met Mr Sefcovic rejected the demand saying that the UK “could not and would not” comply. He added: “I made it perfectly clear to Vice-president Sefcovic that we would not be withdrawing this legislation. Of course he regretted it.”Mr Sefcovic accused London of contemplating

Source: The Times September 10, 2020 16:28 UTC