Boris: Deal is ‘dead’ PM Johnson warns of no-deal Brexit unless EU renegotiates

BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the Brexit divorce is dead and warned that unless the European Union renegotiated, Britain would leave on October 31 without a deal.

Many investors say a nodeal Brexit would send shockwaves through the world economy, tip Britain’s economy into a recession, roil financial markets and weaken London’s position as the pre-eminent international financial centre.

Mr Johnson’s bet is that the threat of a no-deal Brexit will persuade the EU’s biggest powers – Germany and France – to agree to revise the Withdrawal Agreement that Theresa May failed three times to push through the British parliament.

“The Withdrawal Agreement is dead, it’s got to go. But there is scope to do a new deal,” Mr Johnson said in Faslane, Britain’s nuclear submarine base on the Clyde River in Scotland.

“We are going to go ahead and come out of the EU on October 31.”

When asked about his remark during the campaign for the party leadership that the odds on a no-deal Brexit were a million to one, he said: “Provided there is sufficient goodwill and common sense on the part of our partners, that is exactly where I would put the odds.”

Mr Johnson also said that the Irish border backstop, designed to prevent the return of a hard border between Ireland and the UK’s province of Northern Ireland, was “no good, it’s dead, it’s got to go”.

Under the backstop, the UK would remain in a customs union with the EU “unless and until” alternative arrangements are found to avoid a hard border. The 27 other EU members, though, say publicly and privately that the divorce settlement, including the backstop, is not up for barter.

If Mr Johnson goes for a nodeal Brexit, some British MPs will attempt to stop him, possibly collapsing his government. If they try to thwart Brexit, an election becomes much more likely.

Mr Johnson’s promise to deliver Brexit, with or without a deal, has put him at odds with some in his party who oppose a “no-deal” exit, including its Scottish leader Ruth Davidson.