The staunch anti-Brexit campaigner told Sky News the “emotive” issues of state aid and fisheries were overshadowing the financial services sector and its importance in the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and the EU. But Brexit Party Chairman Richard Tice promptly shut down the Remainer’s scaremongering warning as he claimed firms had four years to get ready.
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Ms Miller said: “There is such uncertainty and such urgency and concern that the industry that employs 1.1 million people is being forgotten for the more emotive state aid and fisheries.
“Financial services of not just the city of London, but also Edinburgh, Bristol, Leeds, are a huge UK success story.
“We should be talking about it and we should be defending it. And we should be looking at relationships with other countries outside of the EU but right now we need to resolve what happens with our relation with the EU in the immediate to short term.”
To which Mr Tice replied: “It does need resolving, there’s no question. Equivalence is the way forward, I’m confident they’ll get there.
“But let’s be clear, the city has had four years to get ready. I understand that most firms have got themselves ready.
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“Frankly, I haven’t got that much sympathy for firms that after all that time haven’t got themselves ready.”
It comes as European Union negotiators have signalled that they are willing to begin work on a joint legal text of a trade agreement with the UK, ahead of trade talks that resume on Tuesday.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is ready to begin work on a joint draft version of a free trade agreement, known as a “consolidated legal text”, this week, according to the Times.
Mr Barnier expects the UK’s chief negotiator David Frost to provide more details of fishing quotas and the Government’s future subsidy policy, the Times report said, adding that EU has also backed away from a threat to suspend trade and security talks.
The UK left the EU last January and is locked in negotiations on a new trade deal from 2021, as well as on implementing the divorce, as set out in the withdrawal agreement, especially on the sensitive Irish border.
Trade talks resume in Brussels on Tuesday. Lasting until Friday morning and also due to cover energy links and transport, they are the final round of negotiations scheduled so far.
Brussels has dropped its demands for the two sides to reach a broad agreement on all the outstanding areas of dispute before drafting a final agreement and expects UK to engage in detailed discussions on post-Brexit fishing quotas and the government’s future subsidy policy, the newspaper said.
But Germany’s Europe Minister Michael Roth has written an open letter to the British government saying that the European Union cannot and will not accept London questioning the Brexit agreement signed nine months ago.
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“The British internal market bill would gravely violate key parts of the Withdrawal Agreement,” Mr Roth said in the letter published in Der Spiegel on Tuesday.
“The withdrawal agreement, which is after all an international treaty, was only negotiated and signed nine months ago and you’re already throwing it into question again?
“The EU cannot and will not accept this,” he added.
Mr Roth said a fair deal would be possible if both Britain and the EU showed willingness to compromise but added that the EU was well prepared if it came to a no deal Brexit.
