Brexit deal propaganda war as EU downplays UK’s achievements in graphic

A propaganda war has erupted after the EU undersold the UK Government’s achievements during negotiations for the Brexit deal.

A leaked Government document today showed the real wins for Britons after the transition period ends on December 31.

Issues such as free movement of people, trade and energy – which the EU labelled as losses for the UK in a graphic released yesterday – were actually wins, according to the table of UK victories.

The document claimed the UK won more than twice as many victories as the EU, with 28 wins for the UK against 11 for the EU. It revealed 26 ‘mutual compromises’.

The EU graph, meanwhile, claimed the UK had kept just two of the benefits of being a member of the organisation.  

Four-and-a-half years after Brits voted to leave the EU, Boris Johnson yesterday announced that a trade deal had finally been agreed.  

The Prime Minister said it would be ‘the basis of a happy and successful and stable partnership with our friends in the EU for years to come,’ but negotiations were anything but jovial.

Senior ministers received dressing-downs that were worthy of being viewed on Netflix, sources said, while the EU ‘went mental,’ over a Downing Street tweet in the midst of negotiations.

And the Prime Minister’s own announcement had to be delayed after officials spotted a last-minute mathematical error over fisheries. 

Later in the day, the EU released a graphic comparing the deal with the privileges enjoyed by member countries.

It claimed the UK was losing freedom of movement as Britons could no longer travel to the EU for more than 90 days without a visa. Other benefits that would be taken away from Britons included the removal of roaming charges and frictionless trade.

But a leaked document has proven the UK actually had many more wins than the graphic suggested.

Britons will still be able to travel to the EU for up to 90 days without a visa and issues such as the restriction of family benefits for EU citizens coming to live in the UK were found in the UK’s favour.

The UK has also labelled negotiations over telecoms as a win, with the document reading: ‘The agreement encourages regulatory cooperation on mobile roaming, in line with EU-Japan.’

There are also a number of wins for the UK around trade. The document said: ‘The text makes clear the UK’s right to regulatory autonomy, but at the same time contains helpful provisions on regulatory cooperation, which the Commission had resisted. 

‘In specific areas such as our approach to conformity assessment (testing to ensure the safety of goods) the UK successfully resisted attempts to tie us to EU approaches.’

The UK also scored an agreement to cooperate on managing flow of ‘roll-on roll-off’ ports in Dover and Holyhead as wells as the possibility of ‘sharing import and export declaration data’.

Fisheries, a sticking point for both sides, was labeled a ‘compromise’ by the UK document.

It read: ‘Annual quota system returns after a five and a half year transition, during which access is fixed.’

Yesterday, Boris Johnson boasted that the UK would have ‘prodigious’ quantities of extra fish thanks to his Brexit deal – despite admitting he had made concessions to the EU.

The historic agreement struck with Brussels will mean Britain claws back 25 per cent of the bloc’s existing catch over the next five and a half years.

And the PM said it will regain complete control of the fishing stocks once that transition period ends.