BORIS CALLS OFF BREXIT TALKS
PM says we must prepare for No Deal – because EU won’t budge
BRITAIN should prepare for a No-Deal Brexit, Boris Johnson warned yesterday as he called off talks on a trade agreement.
The Prime Minister said the EU’s ‘unacceptable’ demands meant there was no point continuing discussions.
And, with just ten weeks to go until the end of the Brexit transition, he said it was time for businesses and individuals to begin preparing for life without a trade deal, which will mean tariffs and possible border chaos in the short term.
Downing Street went further, with the PM’s official spokesman saying trade talks were ‘over’. No 10 told the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier last night not to bother travelling to London for talks next week, just hours after European Commiswill sion chief Ursula von der Leyen said efforts would be ‘intensified’.
A spokesman said there was ‘no point’ in discussions continuing next week unless the EU changes tack, although the PM’s chief negotiator Lord Frost will speak to Mr Barnier by phone.
Mr Johnson left the door open to the resumption of talks in the coming days. But he said this would require a ‘fundamental change of approach’ from Brussels. The PM said Britain should embrace the prospect of no trade deal ‘with high hearts and complete confidence’. He added: ‘We
prosper mightily as an independent free-trading nation, controlling our own borders, our fisheries, and setting our own laws.’
Earlier Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab suggested there was still ‘a deal to be done’.
Mr Raab said the differences between the two sides were now ‘very narrow’, with ‘only really two issues at stake’ – fishing rights and rules on state aid subsidies.
Mr Johnson’s comments followed an EU summit at which leaders dropped a pledge to ‘intensify’ talks and said it was up to the
UK to ‘make the necessary moves to make an agreement possible’.
The PM’s spokesman said: ‘The trade talks are over. The EU have effectively ended them by saying that they do not want to change their negotiating position.’
Last night there were signs of compromise from some EU leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Brussels had to accept the UK’s right to diverge from EU rules in future, adding: ‘If we want to have an agreement, then both sides need to make a move toward each other.’ And French president
Emmanuel Macron admitted for the first time that his country’s fishing fleet would be even worse off under No Deal. However, an EU source close to the negotiations said: ‘If Mr Johnson wants the EU to completely change its position, it simply won’t happen.’
The prospect of No Deal sparked a backlash from business leaders.
Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director general, said: ‘After four years of negotiations and so many hurdles crossed, this is no time to give up.’ And Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders, said leaving the EU without a deal would have a ‘devastating’ impact on the car industry, hitting the economy and jobs in every region of the UK.
Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said the PM’s words suggested ‘we are heading into very dangerous territory’, with No Deal likely to mean higher food prices. And Allie Renison, of the Institute of Directors, warned that preparing for No Deal amid a pandemic would be ‘a Herculean task for many businesses’.