Brexit war of words threatens to overshadow second day of talks

Speaking this morning, the Luxembourg politician hit out at the Government's latest slew of position papers, describing them as unsatisfactory and claiming it was "crystal clear" that an "enormous amount" of issues needed to be settled before talks on a future trade deal could begin.

His intervention follow yesterday's scathing comments from the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier, who used a joint press conference with Brexit Secretary David Davis to urge Britain to take negotiations more "seriously".

This has drawn fierce criticism from British sources, who reportedly dismissed the comments as "inconsistent, ill-judged... and unhelpful".

EU and UK negotiating teams are currently engaged in the third round of formal talks in Brussels as the two parties thrash out the details of a withdrawal agreement.

Key issues to be settled include the future rights of EU citizens living in the UK, how to avoid a return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and the so-called divorce bill.

The last round of talks concluded with a critical response from the Commission, with Mr Barnier accusing his British counterparts of lacking clarity.

However, Mr Davis appeared to issue a rebuttal on Monday as he pointed to the seven new Brexit-themed papers published by his department over the last fortnight as proof of the "hard work and detailed thinking that has been going on behind the scenes".

The Haltemprice and Howden MP also made an indirect reference to the growing demand for talks to move on to the future relationship with the EU as he called for greater "flexibility" from Brussels.

But despite the increased activity on the UK side, Mr Barnier repeated his warnings about the need for greater clarity, expressing impatience at the lack of progress in settling the UK's outstanding financial obligations,

“To be honest I am concerned that time passes quickly. We must start negotiating seriously," he said.

“We need UK papers that are clear in order to have constructive negotiations and the sooner we remove the ambiguity the sooner we will be in a position to discuss the future relationship and transitional period.”

A source close to the talks is quoted by the Telegraph newspaper as condemning Mr Barnier's comments as "inconsistent, ill-judged, ill-considered and unhelpful for the next round of negotiations".

But Mr Juncker issued a further rebuke this morning as he warned Britain must be prepared to "settle the past before we look forward to the future".

"I did read, with the requisite attention, all the papers produced by Her Majesty's Government and none of those is actually satisfactory," he said.

"So there is still an enormous amount of issues which remain to be settled.

"Not just on the border problems regarding Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is a very serious problem in respect of which we have had no definitive response, but we also have the status of European citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living on the Continent.

"We need to be crystal clear that we will commence no negotiations on the new relationship - particularly a new economic and trade relationship - between the UK and the EU before all these questions are resolved."