It’s been a long night in Brussels and it’s going to be a hard day ahead for David Cameron as he tries to strike a deal with other European leaders at the EU summit. The Prime Minister has now arrived and said he will ‘do everything he can’. He added that ‘some progress’ had been made but there was still no deal:
It looked earlier in the day as though Greece could veto the entire summit over the issue of migration. Polish Minister for European Affairs, Konrad Szymański, said it was a serious issue but maintained that he was confident it would be sorted:
French President Francois Hollande said this morning that the proposals had changed overnight:
The PM does have some allies around the table, however, including the Dutch PM. But Mark Rutte went on to give a stark warning about what Brexit could mean for Britain. He said the UK outside the EU would end up being a ‘mid-sized economy somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean – neither America or Europe’:
Back at home, Energy Minister Amber Rudd said she ‘hoped’ the PM would get the right deal. Speaking on the Today programme, she refused to be drawn upon whether the likes of Boris Johnson were leaning towards voting out but said she was hoping for an ‘improved deal’ from what we had before:
Whilst in Brussels, Nigel Farage looked like he was relishing every moment of the apparent indecision as he took credit for the negotiation – and a possible referendum – happening in the first place:
But there is certainly some desire to do a deal amongst European leaders. Stefan Loven, the Swedish PM, said we ‘didn’t need a European Union that cannot hold together’:
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