Angela Merkel tells Theresa May she ‘deplores’ Britain’s exit from the EU at crunch talks in Germany

ANGELA Merkel has told Theresa May that she still hates Brexit, even a year and a half after Britain voted to leave the bloc.

The German Chancellor said during a joint press conference with the British Prime Minister that she “deplores” the UK’s exit from the EU, The Sun reports.

The PM held crunch talks with Merkel on a post Brexit future over the weekend — amid talk that the Germans are frustrated by the UK’s lack of clarity on leaving the bloc.

Mrs May flew to Berlin on Saturday, where she is under huge pressure to reveal what Britain wants in future from the EU.

“I’m not frustrated at all, I am just curious on how Britain envisages this future partnership. And obviously we have our own vested interests,” Mrs Merkel said this afternoon.

“We very much look forward to Britain again setting out its ideas.”

And she said that they were “under a certain amount of time pressure” to get an agreement together, but it must be done in a “diligent and careful” way.

“We need a permanent exchange, because sometimes we don’t know how our opposite is seeing things,” she said.

Work needs to be done to make sure that planes can continue to take off and land, that tourists can travel, and healthcare systems remain in place, the German Chancellor explained.

“We would like to preserve this close partnership.”

But Mrs May told her “it isn’t just a one-way street” and insisted that she wanted a “bold and ambitious” deal that would be good for all sides — inviting her to share her thoughts too.

“I want a future economic partnership that is good for Germany, the other members of the EU ... and the UK,” she added.

And in a boost for the PM, Mrs Merkel hinted that a bespoke trade deal IS on the cards.

She said that there needed to be an outcome that is a “fair balance” — one that is “as close as possible” but not the same as Britain has now.

“That does not need to be cherrypicking,” she insisted.

Meanwhile, Sabine Weyand, Michel Barnier’s number two, said today that she thinks Britain lacked a clear direction.

She said: “We have very competent negotiating partners, but what they often lack is a clear political orientation, and that’s because the political discussion in the UK isn’t over.

“They don’t know what version of Brexit a majority stood for. The remaining time is short, but we need clarity.”

Ahead of the visit Mrs Merkel’s spokesman warned that “time is running out” to hammer out a transition and trade deal.

German officials are said to be frustrated with the lack of clarity and progress on plans for our split.

Britain and the EU are currently thrashing out a transition deal — which will come into place after March 2019 when we leave the bloc, but will keep many rules the same to help businesses prepare and adjust.

But the last time Mrs May and Mrs Merkel met, relations went somewhat sour — when they got in an embarrassing conversation over what Brexit would look like.

Their discussions on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last month reportedly got locked in a circular chat, with both sides refusing to back down.

At a briefing with journalists the Chancellor joked that her exchanges with Mrs May had become locked in a “loop”.

She had asked the PM what she wanted from a deal, who replied: “Make me an offer”.

Mrs Merkel claims she then told Mrs May: “But you’re leaving — we don’t have to make you an offer!”

They met today ahead of Mrs May’s key speech in Munich tomorrow, where she will spell out how Britain will work together with other EU nations on security co-operation after we quit the bloc in 2019.

But this morning former NATO secretary-general Anders Foch Rasmussen said “security is not on the radar screen right now” and the issues must be addressed as soon as possible.

He told Radio 4’s Today program: “I have urged the negotiators on both sides to start negotiations on security issues right now.”

And in a rare joint statement, the head of MI6 joined with his French and German counterparts earlier today to call for continued intelligence-sharing after Brexit.

They said co-operation in the current climate was still “indispensable” — and must go on after we leave the bloc to tackle terrorism, illegal migration and cyber attacks.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished with permission.