BREXIT trade talks with the EU due to take place next week could be postponed over coronavirus fears, Michael Gove has revealed.
Negotiations are due to take place in London from March 18, following last week’s inconclusive discussions in Brussels.
But the senior Cabinet minister told MPs yesterday morning that the two sides were discussing the practicalities given that there are coronavirus cases in both cities.
Asked by the Future Relationship with the European Union Committee whether negotiations could be impacted by the spread of coronavirus and whether face-to-face meetings would continue, Gove said: “It’s a live question.
“We were looking forward to the joint committee meeting in the UK on the 30th of this month and we were also looking forward to the next stage of the negotiations going ahead.
“But we have had indications today from Belgium that there may be a specific ... health concern.”
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Gove also said that while the UK planned to produce a draft-free trade agreement ahead of those talks, a decision had not yet made on whether this would be published.
A spokesman for the European Commission said the second round of talks was still scheduled to go ahead.
The news came as it emerged Boris Johnson is not being tested for coronavirus, despite being at a reception with infected Health Minister Nadine Dorries last Friday.
Downing Street said the PM did not need to be checked as he was showing “no symptoms” and had not been within two metres of the quarantined MP.
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Despite MPs saying he should be tested, sources insisted there was less risk because Johnson regularly washed his hands.
Dorries has revealed she has put herself into isolation, just days after attending a reception at No 10 with the Prime Minister.
The Tory MP, who gave a speech in the Commons last night, was in the tea rooms with other politicians, and held a surgery on Saturday for 50 of her constituents.
She is believed to have started feeling ill last Thursday, before deteriorating the following day.
SNP sources told The National that several Westminster cross-party meetings and receptions due to take place inside the parliament estates have also been cancelled this week amid the virus outbreak and continuing spread.
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