AS the deadline for a Brexit agreement nears, both negotiating parties are beginning to ramp up the rhetoric when it comes to discussing the possibility of Britain making a ‘no deal’ departure from the European Union.

Last week, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, warned that if Brexit occurred without a deal, “there would be no specific arrangement in place for EU citizens in the UK, or for UK citizens in the EU.”

This weekend, the new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, responded by sticking rigidly to the Prime Minister’s mantra that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ even if that means having to turn a ten-mile stretch of the M26 in Kent into a giant lorry park.

Mr Raab said: “If we have no deal, we have to make sure we are prepared at the border with the knock-on effects if, on the EU side, they take the worst-case scenario approach.”

As the clock ticks on, we can expect more sabre-rattling. Both negotiating teams want the best deal possible, and while the EU will attempt to accentuate the dangers of a no-deal exit, it suits the British Government for the possibility to remain on the table.

Ultimately, though, both sides will lose if an agreement proves elusive and it will damage both Britain and the EU if positions become entrenched because of the use of increasingly inflammatory language.

Negotiating is one thing; planting scare stories purely to score political points is quite another. Let us hope that, behind closed doors, more meaningful discussions are underway.