EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier says he will 'teach the UK what leaving the single market means'

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has Brexit will be used to “teach the British people and others what leaving the EU means”.

In highly inflammatory comments made to a conference in Italy on Saturday, Mr Barnier said it was his job to “educate” the UK about the price of leaving the EU “club”.

Mr Barnier also said Brexit would be “an educational process” for the UK.

“I have a state of mind – not aggressive ... but I’m not naïve,” he told the Ambrosetti forum.

“There are extremely serious consequences of leaving the single market, and they haven’t been explained to the British people. We intend to teach people … what leaving the single market means.”

The war of words between the EU and UK sides of the negotiation has ratcheted up again this weekend, after Wednesday’s extraordinary press conference between Michel Barnier and David Davis.

Mr Davis told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that Mr Barnier had looked “a bit silly” during the press conference, and was trying to play “money against time” in the negotiations.

He said the EU was “frightened”, and the UK would not be bounced into agreeing a settlement figure in order to proceed to the trading relationship stage of the talks.

Mr Davis said: “What he’s concerned about of course is he’s not getting the answer on money ... They’ve set this up to try and create pressure on us on money ... They’re trying to play time against money.

“We’re going through [the bill] line by line, and they’re finding it difficult because we’ve got good lawyers ... He wants to put pressure on us, which is why the stance this week in the press conference. Bluntly, I think it looked a bit silly, because plainly there were things that we’ve achieved.”