In 60 Seconds

Will there be a Brexit agreement at the EU Council meetings?

Will there be a Brexit agreement at the EU Council meetings?

Will there be agreement, and will negotiations carry on if there is no agreement in the EU?

Lord William Hague: Well, they won't carry on if there is no agreement at the European Council in the next few days. But in the EU, while you always think of things going to the last minute, in fact they usually go beyond the last minute. And that could happen in this case where there could be political agreement, agreement in principle to a Brexit deal. But they'd have to have another European Council, and more detail hammering out the actual text of it before another summit on the 28th of October, which would mean some extension to Brexit.

Will Brexit negotiations with the EU come to a halt if no agreement is reached at this week's EU Council meeting?

David Miliband: The truth is, no one knows the answer to that question because we don't know for what reason, the talks will come to a halt. They may come to a halt for a pause for breakfast. They may come to a halt for a pause for consultations. They may come to a halt to allow the European Council to meet and decide whether it wants to give the green light to further discussions. And we just don't know what's going to happen over the next few days. What we do know is that it is massively in Boris Johnson's interest for him to get a deal and he's willing to do, it seems, almost anything to get that deal, including backing something that he previously rejected as unacceptable.

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