Brexit tempers fray as PM warns EU: I won’t back down

BORIS Johnson last night warned the eu he would ‘not back down’ over Brexit as trade talks descended into acrimony.

The Prime Minister’s chief negotiator David Frost will resume discussions with his eu counterpart Michel Barnier in London this morning, amid warnings time is running out to agree a deal.

Lord Frost last night warned talks could collapse this week unless the eu shows ‘more realism’ about the uK’s new status as an independent state.

And in a message to supporters, the Prime Minister said he would not ‘back down’ against eu demands over Britain’s right to set its own laws. But the talks were overshadowed yesterday by a row over the implementation of the Brexit deal signed by Mr Johnson last year.

Ministers were accused of bad faith following claims a new law would ‘override’ parts of the deal relating to Northern Ireland. Downing Street yesterday insisted it would implement the deal in full – and said the new law would only make ‘limited clarifications’ to this.

The move caused alarm in eu capitals, but there were no immediate threats to walk away from negotiations.

european Commission chief ursula von der Leyen said full implementation of last year’s deal was a ‘prerequisite for any future partnership’. And Bernd Lange, chairman of the european Parliament’s trade committee, said the talks would be ‘doomed’ if the uK reneged on any part of the deal.

he added: ‘I haven’t seen anything like it in decades. We won’t allow ourselves to be blackmailed.’ But French President emmanuel Macron discussed Brexit with Mr Johnson by phone yesterday and later described the talk as ‘very good’.

It comes as the uK Government prepares to publish its Internal Market Bill tomorrow, which SNP ministers claim will be ‘the biggest assault on devolution since the Scottish parliament was established’.

It will set out how powers in at least 70 policy areas previously held by the eu will return to the uK from January.

A uK Government source said: ‘Powers that are currently under the control of the eu will be transferred to the devolved administrations for the first time.

‘This power surge for devolution will ensure Scottish Government will have power over more issues than they have ever had before.

‘Businesses in Scotland depend on trade with the rest of the uK more than any other partner. Without this vital legislation, trade from one part of the union to another could be disrupted through different rules, regulations and standards which will put jobs at risk.’

Where powers return from the eu, all parts of the united Kingdom will begin from the same regulatory position – but SNP ministers are likely to claim this is restricting their power.

SNP Constitution Secretary Michael Russell said: ‘With the likely publication of the Internal Market Bill this week, designed to allow bad trade deals to be imposed no matter the view of the Scottish people, we will see confirmed the biggest assault on devolution since the Scottish Parliament was established.

‘We will, as we have made clear, oppose it at every turn.’

Critics at home warned Britain’s reputation would suffer if it undermined the Brexit deal. Former Chancellor Philip hammond said it would ‘hugely damage’ the uK’s standing.

But No10 played down the row. The Prime Minister’s spokesman acknowledged that the new Internal Market Bill – to be published tomorrow – would tidy up some provisions in the Northern Ireland Protocol, which forms part of last year’s Brexit deal.

he warned that failure to clarify matters such as provisions on tariffs could lead to uncertainty for businesses and even undermine the peace process.

he said the changes were a necessary ‘safety net’ if they were unable to reach an agreement. under the terms of last year’s Brexit deal, Northern Ireland will effectively remain part of the eu’s single market and customs unions. Ministers want to ensure the eu cannot use the deal to extend its jurisdiction into the rest of the uK.

Lord Frost warned the talks would run out of time unless progress was made this year. he said there was ‘still time’ to reach an agreement but said the uK was ‘ramping up ‘preparations for No Deal – which Mr Johnson claimed would be a ‘good outcome’.

‘Oppose it at every turn’

FROM all the sound and fury yesterday, anyone would think Boris Johnson had ripped up the EU withdrawal agreement and was wantonly jeopardising peace in Ireland.

Sinn Fein spoke of ‘a treacherous betrayal’. One member of the Irish parliament said he was ‘trading peace for state aid and fisheries’. Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier suggested the issue could see his team walking away from talks.

In fact, the new Commons Bill at the heart of the row, designed to secure the ‘seamless functioning’ of trade within the UK after our EU withdrawal, looks to be pretty small beer.

Here is the gist. Under the Northern Ireland Protocol we are committed (deal or No Deal) to carrying out customs checks on goods travelling between mainland Britain and the province, which would effectively remain in the Single Market.

These checks are to be made before the products reach the island of Ireland, removing the need for a hard Irish border.

Goods which are to be sold on into the wider EU will need a customs declaration. Those which are destined for sale within the UK only will not.

None of this will change. But crucially, the Bill says it will be for the UK unilaterally to decide which goods require a declaration (and possibly tariffs in the event of No Deal) and which do not.

Although the Bill does not materially alter the protocol, the fact that it was drawn up without consultation has rattled Brussels.

With talks due to resume today, the timing looks to have been quite deliberate.

It follows a defiant interview at the weekend in which the UK’s chief negotiator Lord Frost said Britain would not allow itself to become a ‘client state’. Then yesterday Mr Johnson publicly suggested that No Deal could be ‘a good outcome’.

The Prime Minister is sending out a bold message that he will not be pushed around in these negotiations. Unlike Theresa May with her fragile minority government, he has an 80-seat majority and was elected on a promise to ‘get Brexit done’.

He wants to strike a deal and this paper certainly hopes he can. But he will not sign up to the EU’s regulatory regime in order to secure one. Brussels must understand this, or No Deal seems inevitable.

Disruptive as that would be for this country, for the Irish Republic and other EU countries which rely on export sales to Britain, it would be a catastrophe. The ball is in their court.