just an update for you because we
understand that dinner in brussels
between boris johnson and the president
of the commission
and other advisers has come to an end
and uh let's go back to westminster then
and talk to
laura kinsburg uh laura what have you
been told well you remember what was
happening tonight the eu chief and the
prime minister were trying to break
bread with each other to see if they
could find any way of being able to
breathe life back into the possibility
of a trade deal that matters so much to
the economy and such a long list of
things
and in the last few minutes it's been
made very clear by downing street that
this meeting has not gone well forgive
me i'm going to read some of
the uh message that we've got tonight
from a senior number 10 source
the prime minister and ursula underlying
had a frank discussion about the
significant obstacles which remain
very large gaps remain between the two
sides
it's still unclear whether these can be
bridged they've agreed to further
discussions over the next few days
but they agreed that by sunday a firm
decision
should be taken about the future of
these
talks now reading between those lines it
appears that tonight has been
very far from any kind of breakthrough
any kind of accommodation between the
two when they were able to
look in the whites of each other's eyes
and say yes let's compromise let's get
this
done but in politics in the whole brexit
process the distance between wednesday
and sunday is a very very long time so
while this appears tonight to be
a big and significant step towards
leaving
the transition period the status quo
without a firm arrangement in place
it's still not impossible that it could
happen
but it does tonight appear that we are
on the road to that which
many people both parties have said they
wanted
to this deal to be done and many people
in westminster would consider that us
leaving the transition stage without a
firm trade deal in place
would be a political and historic
accident that wasn't meant to happen
laura many thanks for the update del oro
kinsburg with the latest on those talks