Brexit talks are a sham, blasts former May aide

‘Running down the clock to a No Deal’

BORIS Johnson was yesterday accused by Theresa May’s former chief of staff of conducting ‘sham’ Brexit negotiations, sparking a furious row with Downing Street.

Gavin Barwell said he had heard from ‘sources’ in Westminster that the Prime Minister was not serious about talks with Brussels – and suggested Mr Johnson did not really have an alternative to the controversial Irish backstop.

It came after reports that Mr Johnson’s de facto chief of staff, Dominic Cummings, had described talks over the border backstop as a ‘sham’ during strategy meetings.

And Attorney General Geoffrey Cox was said to have warned Mr Johnson that it was a ‘complete fantasy’ to think the EU would drop the controversial backstop from the exit deal. Meanwhile, it was also claimed that the Prime Minister’s Brexit negotiating team had been slashed to less than a quarter of the size it was under Mrs May. Sky News claimed that only 25 people were working on renegotiating a Brexit deal. The previous government had 45 people working on the issue of the Irish backstop alone.

Mr Johnson’s spokesman denied the talks were a sham, insisting that the Government was ‘absolutely not’ running down the clock to a No Deal Brexit in October.

In the Commons, the Prime Minister told MPs he did want a negotiated exit from the European Union and there was ‘real momentum’ behind the talks with Brussels.

Mr Barwell’s intervention came after it was reported that Mr Cummings had labelled the talks a ‘sham’ in private meetings. Mr Barwell, Mrs May’s chief of staff when she was in Downing Street and a former MP, tweeted: ‘I’ve had same reports re “sham negotiations” from multiple govt sources. If not true (my views were sometimes misreported when I was chief of staff), government should publish its proposals to replace backstop.’

Senior diplomats from EU member states are also said to have expressed their ‘frustration’ during a briefing by one of EU negotiator Michel Barnier’s team. The group was told the UK had not yet tabled any new proposals, ‘not even a sketch yet’, according to one source. One official said: ‘Last week, when (UK negotiator) David Frost visited, he stayed for a couple of hours and then went. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that’s because there was nothing serious to talk about.’

An EU diplomat said of yesterday’s meeting: ‘People are more convinced Boris is running down the clock to a No Deal rather than wanting a deal because there’s also so little time, what with the British Parliament sitting so few days.’

But Mr Johnson’s spokesman pointed out that Mr Frost had stepped up meetings with EU negotiators to twice a week in Brussels. He said recent remarks from French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel suggested the EU’s position was softening, adding: ‘We were told very firmly initially that there could be no discussions [on a new deal]. Now EU leaders are working with us.’

A government source did acknowledge that Mr Cox had warned Mr Johnson over the backstop, but said it happened at a meeting on June 27. The source added: ‘A lot has changed since then.’