A LEADING Irish politician has called for the Scottish Government to work with the Northern Ireland Executive to put pressure on Boris Johnson to seek an extension to the Brexit transition period.

Senator Neale Richmond spoke out as the latest round of talks between the UK and EU over the future relationship ended in deadlock yesterday.

The Fine Gael politician – a close ally of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar – called for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to work together to lobby the Prime Minister to seek an extension which would allow the UK to remain in the European single

market and customs union. The deadline for such a request is the end of this month.

Richmond also urged the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)

and National Farmers’ Union (NFU) to call for an extension – saying he was surprised the two organisations had yet to do so.

“The prospect of a No-Deal by the end of the year is now more likely than before and even if we are to achieve a deal it will be extremely narrow,” he said. “There is scope for the devolved administrations to really put the pressure on London.

“But I think the pressure needs to be more than just political it also has to be societal. I would continue to encourage not just Scottish political friends and colleagues but also the business sector, the agri-food sector and fishing sector to really ramp up the level of pressure on London to seek an extension.

“The fact that organisations like the CBI and the NFU have yet to call for an extension is absolutely mind blowing when you look at what the economic effect would be on these sectors.”

The Scottish and Welsh Governments have repeatedly called for a longer transition period and, earlier this week, the Northern Irish Assembly voted for an extension on the grounds imposing checks on goods travelling across the Irish Sea would be too complex while the country is grappling with the virus’s effects.

Richmond made his intervention after the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said there had been “no significant areas of progress”.

The talks had been intended to lay the ground for a high-level summit later this month to assess progress.

However, both sides suggested the unwieldy system of remote meetings – agreed because of the coronavirus outbreak – had reached its limit and that officials would need to start meeting again face to face if they were to move forward.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Barnier said he hoped arrangements could be in place by the end of the month.

As it stands, Britain will leave the EU single market when the current Brexit transition period comes to an end at the end of the year, with nothing to replace it unless a deal is agreed.

Barnier said the “door is still open” for the UK to seek an extension to the transition period to allow more time for negotiations to continue – something which Johnson has repeatedly ruled out.

However the EU negotiator again accused the British side of backtracking on commitments made in the political declaration signed last year by the Prime Minister – including on continued access to UK fisheries.

“We cannot and will not accept this backtracking on the political declaration,” he said.

British officials acknowledged that they had a “slightly different interpretation” of the declaration, which they said was meant to set the “parameters” for the negotiations.

“It doesn’t require everything in it to be agreed in treaty form,” said one.

Meanwhile, CBI deputy director-general Josh Hardie called on political leaders to “change the dynamic” of the talks, adding: “Failure to break the deadlock only leaves a choice between an extension that the UK Government has already ruled out or worse, a deeply damaging No-Deal.”