Talk of a chaotic British split from the European Union grew on Tuesday with just three weeks left to break a deadlock in trade deal negotiations, with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning that the two sides may have to accept "no deal."
The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, told a meeting of the bloc's ministers that he believed a no-deal scenario at the end of the year was now more likely than an agreement on trade ties, an EU official and two diplomats told Reuters.
Deepening the gloom, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said that unless there was a breakthrough "in the next day or two," EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday would have to discuss contingency plans for the economic disruption that a lack of a deal would bring.