Leeds council leader's talks with chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier

Coun Judith Blake held discussions with Michel Barnier in the Belgian capital yesterday in her role as the chairwoman of the Core Cities group.

Civic leaders attended the European Commission headquarters with the EUROCITIES network, meaning roughly 200 urban centres were represented at the meeting.

Politicians talked about how the shared interests of their cities, communities and businesses can be best met in the lead up to and after Brexit.

Coun Blake said: “We were really going with a real sense of frustration and concern that despite our own attempts to meet with the UK Government negotiators, they haven’t set meetings with us.”

She added: “The real concern is around trade.

“It’s also around the different relationships with have with the different universities, climate change and the environment, a whole range of issues we have in common.”

Coun Blake added that there had been an agreement to continue discussions in the future.

She previously said that negotiating the UK’s exit from the EU is a matter for the Government and the meeting with Mr Barnier was not to discuss that process. The delegation of Core Cities chiefs also included leaders and mayors from Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester and Newcastle. The areas generate 25 per cent of the UK economy.

They also deliver 29 per cent of UK international trade and host 37.5 per cent of UK university students. It is estimated Core Cities exported more than £72 billion in 2016, of which 48 per cent was to the EU and 52 per cent to non-EU countries.

Brexit Secretary David Davis is today due to deliver speech to business leaders in Vienna, saying that the UK wants to maintain “close, even-handed co-operation” with EU regulatory authorities even after it has withdrawn from the bloc.