PM’s crucial date with Juncker
Pair plan first face-to-face talks as hopes rise that DUP will back a deal
BORIS Johnson scheduled his first one-to-one talks with EU chief JeanClaude Juncker yesterday amid growing optimism on both sides of the Channel about a Brexit deal.
The announcement of the meeting came amid claims that the DUP is shifting its red lines over the Irish border backstop.
The Prime Minister said he was now ‘cautiously optimistic’ about striking an agreement with Brussels before the october 31 deadline. He will have a ‘working lunch’ with Mr Juncker and the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Luxembourg on Monday.
Speaking in Rotherham yesterday, Mr Johnson said: ‘We are working incredibly hard to get a deal. There is the rough shape of the deal to be done. As some of you may have seen, I myself have been to talk to various other EU leaders, particularly in Germany, in France and in Ireland, where we made a good deal of progress.’
of the Luxembourg meeting, Mr Johnson said: ‘We will talk about the ideas that we’ve been working on and we will see where we get. I would say I’m cautiously optimistic.’ Ireland’s man in Brussels, Phil Hogan, who will become the EU’s lead negotiator on a post-Brexit trade deal, also struck an upbeat tone. He said: ‘Recent events in London give us cause for some optimism.’
The DUP is reportedly softening its opposition to Northern Ireland having to abide by some EU rules after Brexit in order to resolve the backstop issue.
It was claimed it had privately dropped its objections to regulatory checks in the Irish Sea on ‘agrigoods’ that would carve out Ulster from the rest of the UK.
It is thought the alleged climbdown is partly due to the suggestion of Northern Ireland having a say over how or when such arrangements are implemented.
This was said to be the subject of talks between Mr Johnson’s negotiator, David Frost, and EU officials yesterday. Sources said the idea would involve Northern Ireland helping to decide whether it wanted to stick with all-Ireland arrangements, staying aligned to EU rules, or if it wanted to become part of the UK’s regulatory regime. Brussels is said to be taking more seriously the idea of an all-Ireland food zone, first floated by Mr Johnson last week.
Agri-goods make up around 32 per cent of the value of trade crossing the Irish border – and 70 to 80 per cent in terms of volume.
EU diplomats were briefed followfinding
‘Exploring what is possible’
ing the talks. one said: ‘It’s the best meeting since the negotiations with Frost started but not yet the beginning of a solution. There was serious engagement for the first time.’
However, Irish premier Leo Varadkar said: ‘I do believe when he [Mr Johnson] says he wants a deal on Brexit that he’s acting in good faith and our teams are in contact and we’re in contact and we’re exploring what is possible.
‘The gap is very wide but we will fight for and work for a deal until the last moment but not at any cost. And at the same time we’re preparing the country for No Deal if we end up in that scenario.’
A UK Government spokesman said: ‘The UK has presented some ideas on an all-island solution. Further discussions between teams will take place next week.’
Mr Johnson has so far only spoken to Mr Juncker over the telephone. It means Monday’s working lunch will be the Prime Minister’s first face-toface talks with the EU Commission president and Mr Barnier.
A commission spokesman said last night: ‘The reason the lunch is taking place in Luxembourg is that the president has to get to Strasbourg for plenary week [in the European Parliament]. Mr Johnson agreed to come to Luxembourg to facilitate this happening.’
Despite Mr Johnson saying he was nearer a deal, a German radio station last night reported Mr Juncker as saying he was not optimistic about alternative arrangements for solving the Irish border. Deutschlandfunk reported a preview of an interview, scheduled to be played tomorrow, in which Mr Juncker hopes for alternative proposals, but warns that ‘time is getting short’.
Asked about No Deal he says: ‘Anyone who loves his country, and I assume that there are still patriots in Britain, would not want to wish his country such a fate.’
FROM another age comes the voice of the prime minister who led us into the 2016 referendum on quitting the eu.
Breaking his silence, David Cameron describes how he worries constantly about the effect of Brexit on the country and how No Deal is nothing but a bad idea.
His bitterness about the behaviour of former Cabinet colleagues Boris Johnson and Michael Gove during the referendum is clear. But most striking is the sense of distance we feel between then and now.
Brexit has been an issue for so long that it is difficult to remember the days when it did not dominate the headlines. Indeed, we are now 39 months on from the outbreak of this debilitating conflict.
If this were the First World War we would be in october 1917, when the British offensive in Flanders bogged down in the drowning mud of Passchendaele.
Brexit is surely its political equivalent: an exhausting battle of attrition in which imagined breakthroughs evaporate, to be replaced by yet more bloodletting.
But even the longest battles must climax. And that moment is approaching – with the october 31 deadline for Brexit still technically in place.
Mr Johnson says he is sincere about seeking a deal. Stripped by Parliament of his ability to threaten to leave with No Deal, it is in his own interests to get one.
After the brutal sacking of 21 Tory rebels, the Prime Minister now favours conciliation. on Monday, he meets eu Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and must offer concrete proposals that cut through the tangled wire of the Northern Ireland backstop. A photo opportunity creating the impression – rather than the reality – of serious negotiation will convince no one.
The nagging question is: why should Mr Juncker help Mr Johnson when he knows the latter cannot legally quit with No Deal? And why help a Prime Minister determined on Brexit when his minority government could be shortly replaced by a supine Remain coalition headed by Jeremy Corbyn?
The answer is that if Mr Juncker simply strings Mr Johnson along, he will be blamed for a disaster engulfing not only Britain but the embattled eurozone.
The possibility of even a temporary Corbyn government – and temporary could mean a year – should focus minds. As Labour plans leak out, the awful truth about its Marxist brave new world is dawning.
Now we hear that independent schools are the target of a £1.6 billion tax raid that would drive up fees and drive out pupils from families of modest means. Architect of this spiteful policy? Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who was busy yesterday quoting Friedrich engels, co-author of The Communist Manifesto.
There is hope for the Prime Minister as he struggles through the shell holes.
There is a suggestion that the Democratic unionists will settle for some form of allIreland trading area to replace the hated backstop. The DUP publicly denies this, but its apparent intransigence is a welltried tactic – witness its accommodation with Sinn Fein, political wing of the IRA.
other barriers lie in Mr Johnson’s line of advance. on Tuesday, the Supreme Court will decide if he lied to the Queen when requesting the prorogation of Parliament.
If he loses, MPs will be recalled and more pointless fighting will erupt in the Commons. Speaker John Bercow is also promising ‘creative’ tactics to further impede Mr Johnson.
Doggedly, the Prime Minister says he will not be deflected from meeting the deadline. There is no dishonour in this so long as he fights for a settlement until then.
Leaving the eu, do or die, may constitute success for hard-Brexiteers. But triumph for the Prime Minister lies in a deal ensuring this country’s prosperity and security. otherwise, as with Passchendaele, Brexit could be a pyrrhic victory.