Brussels: Brussels fears an enfeebled Theresa May will not be able to stand by any pledges she makes in this week's major speech on Brexit but has dismissed Boris Johnson's intervention as an irrelevance, according to the shadow Brexit secretary.
Following meetings with all the major players in the EU's negotiating team, Keir Starmer said "high expectations" in Brussels over the prime minister's speech in Florence on Friday were tempered by concerns over her weakness.
Starmer said that those he had met during high level meetings in Brussels on Wednesday, including the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, his deputy Sabine Weyand, and Martin Selmayr, the all-powerful chief of staff to EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, were deeply sceptical of May's ability to "follow through" on any of her promises.
"They want to see real progress, and they want follow through," Starmer said. "Not a speech and nothing else."
With reference to the speech at last year's Conservative party conference, where May played to the Tory crowd, including a criticism of "citizens of the world" as being "citizens of nowhere", Starmer said Brussels were fearful of a rerun at this year's conference in Manchester.
Starmer said: "They were very struck by what she said at conference last year and they are very conscious that she is making a speech on Friday and she is making another speech in two weeks [at Conservative party conference]. They will take some convincing that Friday is enough if there is not consistency. If it is a position it has got to be a real position."
Starmer said that the EU expected to hear May "talking about the money". On Wednesday it was reported by the Financial Times that Germany had been informed by the British government to expect Theresa May this week to offer to fill a post-Brexit EU budget gap of at least €20bn.
In an attempt to break the stalemate, UK officials are said to have indicated that no member state will have to pay more into the EU budget or receive less money from it until 2020.
Starmer said he was not aware that such figures had been discussed with the commission. With regard to the comments from the foreign secretary last week, in which Johnson said there would be no payments for access to the single market, Starmer added of the EU negotiating team's position: "I'm not sure what Boris said is taken that seriously.