PM: No deal? No fear!
Boris says we could walk away if there’s no sign of pact by tomorrow
BORIS Johnson has told ministers he is ‘ready and willing’ to abandon Brexit trade talks if there is no sign of a deal by tomorrow.
He informed the Cabinet that negotiations were at a ‘crucial stage’ ahead of an EU summit tomorrow described by both sides as the deadline for any agreement.
The Prime Minister said he still wanted ‘ a deal on the right terms’, but claimed he had ‘no fear’ of a No Deal scenario at the end of this year. He will hold emergency talks with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen today ahead of the summit in Brussels. Sources played down the prospects of an imminent breakthrough.
Lord Frost, who is Britain’s chief negotiator, had further talks in Brussels yesterday trying to unlock the vexed issues of fishing and state aid.
He will advise Mr Johnson tomorrow morning on whether it is worth continuing negotiations.
Cabinet Office minister Lord Agnew sparked anger yesterday when he suggested businesses would be at fault for border problems in the event of No Deal.
He told the Commons Treasury committee: ‘There’s been a headin-the-sand approach by traders which has been compounded by what I would call the quadruplewhammy of two false alarms – two extensions at the very last minute – followed by Covid and now followed by the recession.
‘The traders are not as ready as they should be.’
CBI deputy director-general Josh Hardie rejected the charge, saying: ‘ Businesses are doing all they can to prepare for Brexit. But firms face a hat-trick of unprecedented challenges: rebuilding from the first wave of Covid-19, dealing with the resurgence of the virus and uncertainty over the UK’s trading relationship with the EU.’
Michel Barnier, the EU’s top negotiator, told member states at a meeting in Luxembourg that the UK had still not done enough to satisfy his team that a deal was within touching distance.
He tweeted that Brussels would ‘continue to work for a fair deal in the coming days and weeks’.
It means EU heads of state and government are likely to decide to press on with talks when they meet in Brussels tomorrow and Friday. Officials in Brussels say the start of November is in fact their final deadline for sealing an agreement and insist they will not walk away for fear of being blamed for No Deal.
German chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at an EU event in Brussels via videolink, said the bloc was ‘united in its desire’ to reach a deal with the UK.
‘We also have to take into account the reality: an agreement has to be in the interests of both parties. But we must also be prepared in the event that no agreement is reached,’ she said. EU diplomats say there is
‘Going down to the wire’
room for a possible compromise on state aid if the UK accepts ‘an independent judicial authority’ with real powers to deal with disputes.
Brussels is insisting on a global governance arrangement that would allow the EU to suspend any parts of a future trade deal if Britain was found to be in breach of its commitments.
Sources said the question of access for European trawlers to British waters would be the last issue to be resolved. ‘It is going to go down to the wire with fishing,’ said one official who was present at Mr Barnier’s briefing.
‘The compromise will come at the last minute in a trade-off for market access. We are going to be playing a game of poker right up until the end of the negotiations.’
Mr Barnier later told a private meeting of MEPs that the UK ‘has not made any concessions’ on fish stocks in this week’s talks.
But a UK Government source said: ‘The EU have been using the old playbook in which they thought running down the clock would work against the UK.
‘All these tactics have achieved is to get us to the middle of October with lots of work that could have been done left undone.
‘Time is now extraordinarily short. We need the EU to urgently up the pace and inject some creativity.’