A bespoke Brexit deal on financial services "cannot be the outcome of negotiations" according to EU parliament’s Brexit chief.

Guy Verhofstadt has suggested that any deal should ensure there "should be no competitive advantage for either the UK or EU".

"What will be in that part of the agreement, we will see. Passporting will not be there, you have to be part of the Single Market," he said in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

"That will be a far more difficult negotiation than simply to say we like financial services so we'll put it in, we don't like this sector and we put it out.

"There will certainly be something about financial services, but there will also be something about regulatory equivalence then, because what we don't want is that with this whole agreement, establish a financial centre that is competing with the continent..."

"We want a level playing field," he added.

"What Britain is asking for is a request for divergence in a number of fields and that we don't want" he said.

And he insisted that freedom of movement must remain the same during a Brexit transition period.

Share Story: