WE’RE INTO EXTRA TIME
TALKS GO ON BUT PM SAYS ‘PREPARE WITH CONFIDENCE’ FOR NO DEAL
BORIS JOHNSON and Ursula von der Leyen have added time to ‘go the extra mile’ for a Brexit deal – after a ‘useful’ phone call on the day they said they would reach an agreement or step away. ‘Despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact deadlines have been missed over and over, we think it is responsible to go the extra mile,’ a joint statement said. The prime minister later insisted: ‘We’ll try with all our hearts and be as creative as we possibly can.’ But he urged Britain to carry on preparing for no deal as the two sides remained ‘very far apart’ and he would not compromise over fishing or control of UK laws.
He added: ‘In the meantime, get ready with confidence for January 1 to trade on World Trade Organization terms if we have to.’
Mr Johnson refused to say if there had been any progress. But, last night, Brussels sources suggested the UK had agreed not to undercut European firms by dropping existing standards, and that the EU had agreed not to insist on Britain matching its future standards.
But they were said to still be wrangling over how to ensure fair competition if standards diverged and if there should be an independent arbitrator.
The hint of movement came as supermarkets were warned to stockpile goods in case of no deal, and as a £10billion bail-out package was revealed for businesses hit hardest
if a deal was not reached. An industry source told The Sunday Times: ‘Supermarkets and ministers are hugely worried about panic-buying.’
But foreign secretary Dominic Raab said food prices would increase two per cent ‘only’ if tariffs were imposed.
He said: ‘We’re not going to see shelves running bare or any of the scaremongering stories we’ve heard.’
The joint statement from Mr Johnson and European Commission president Ms von der Leyen yesterday did not set a new deadline for a deal.
The transition period ends on December 31 and Britain would leave without a deal at midnight.
But the PM insisted: ‘Look, if Ursula is optimistic, that’s great.
‘As far as I can see there are some serious and very, very difficult issues that currently separate the UK and EU. But where there’s life, there’s hope.
‘The UK certainly won’t be walking away from the talks. I think people would expect us to go the extra mile.’
Mr Raab insisted the prime minister would walk away unless Brussels offered concessions on both fishing and access to the EU single market.
‘The bar is quite high for us to be able to keep talking,’ he told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show.
‘We would need a commitment to move on those two key issues – if we get that then there are still talks to be processed.’
He added: ‘I don’t think you want a nuclear-style reaction where tariffs go up and we’re back in the same old drama and soap opera every couple of years just because there is a particular issue around a particular sector.’ And he repeated the threat to Europe’s fishing industry after reports that four Royal Navy ships were being deployed to patrol the Channel, the North Sea and North Atlantic.
He said: ‘Of course we’re going to enforce our waters around fisheries and whatever else. And of course for the French and others – forget those outlandish terms that they were asking of us – their fishing industries would have zero access guaranteed.’ Last night, Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney said the chances of avoiding a ‘huge political failure’ were increasing. ‘There are serious discussions ongoing and neither side is breaking confidence, and I regard that as a good sign,’ he said.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier was due to brief European ambassadors this morning.