Merkel’s 30-day deadline for Boris backstop solution
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Prime Minister Boris Johnson he has 30 days to come up with an alternative solution to replace the Irish backstop.
Mr Johnson called her timetable “blistering”, but said he was “more than happy” with her proposal to speed-up the talks.
The Conservative Party leader arrived in Berlin yesterday to kickstart talks to find an alternative to the Irish backstop – a contingency measure negotiated by his predecessor Theresa May to get an exit deal over the line.
Mr Johnson, in a letter this week to
European Council President Donald Tusk, said Britain would leave without a deal unless the “anti-democratic” backstop – voted down three times by MPs in Parliament – was removed from the Withdrawal Agreement.
The backstop was a stop-gap measure agreed by Mrs May in an attempt to prevent a hard border being reinstalled in Northern Ireland, a move that would have tied the UK to
European Union rules until a solution was found.
Mrs Merkel, in a statement in the Chancellery, said the backstop had always been a “fallback position” and would only come into effect if no other solution could be agreed that would protect the “integrity of the single market”.
In an attempt to have a backstop solution in place before the October 31 Brexit deadline, the German leader said she wanted a new arrangement agreed within 30 days.
She said: “If one is able to solve this conundrum, if one finds this solution, we said we would probably find it in the next two years to come but we can also maybe find it in the next 30 days to come.
“Then we are one step further in the right direction and we have to obviously put our all into this.”
Mr Johnson said he was “more than happy” with the timetable proposed by his German counterpart.
“I must say I am very glad listening to you tonight Angela to hear that at least the conversations that matter can now properly begin,” he said.
“You have set a very blistering timetable of 30 days – if I understood you correctly, I am more than happy with that.”
A Downing Street source said the Government was happy with the tone of Mrs Merkel’s exchange.
The Government was not briefed beforehand that Mrs Merkel would apply the “pressure” of a 30-day deadline, but Mr Johnson’s team is hopeful it is an indication that European leaders are preparing to renegotiate – an outcome the EU has previously ruled out.
Mr Johnson told Mrs Merkel that the backstop would have to go as part of further discussions – or else Britain was prepared to leave without a deal.
He said the backstop would need to be removed “whole and entire” before a deal could be reached.
But Mr Johnson, on his first trip to Germany as PM, said he was optimistic an agreement could be struck.
“What in my experience happens is that people find a way through and I think that if we approach this with sufficient patience and optimism, as I say, we can get this done and it is in the final furlong generally when the horses change places and the winning deal appears,” he told the press.
Mr Johnson and Mrs Merkel were set to hold talks over dinner, with the Chancellor telling reporters “we need to get to work now”.
The Conservative Party leader is due to travel to France today to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris to hold similar discussions.
Meanwhile, back at home Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has invited senior politicians to a meeting to discuss averting a no-deal Brexit.
In a letter, Mr Corbyn said: “The country is heading into a constitutional and political storm, so it is vital that we meet urgently, before Parliament returns.
“The chaos and dislocation of Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit is real and threatening, as the Government’s leaked Operation Yellowhammer dossier makes crystal clear. That’s why we must do everything we can to stop it.”
The meeting is scheduled to take place on August 27 at 12pm.
A Labour spokesperson said Mr Corbyn has “postponed international commitments to continue his push to block a damaging no-deal Brexit” – the Labour leader was expected to visit Ghana in West Africa next week.
The letter is addressed to Commons Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville Roberts, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Change UK leader Anna Soubry.
Remain-backing Tory MPs Guto Bebb, Dominic Grieve, Oliver Letwin and Caroline Spelman are also copied in, as is former Conservative minister Nick Boles, who resigned the whip in opposition to the Government’s approach to Brexit.
Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly accused Mr Corbyn of trying to “dither and delay” Brexit.
Mr Cleverly said: “Jeremy Corbyn will do all he can to stop delivering on the referendum result. The alternative to delivering Brexit is Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister, a man who would wreck the economy, is soft on crime and won’t stand up for Britain. All Jeremy Corbyn offers is more dither and delay.
“Only Boris Johnson and the Conservatives can provide the leadership Britain needs and deliver Brexit by October 31, whatever happens.”
Mr Corbyn wrote to senior opposition politicians last week and outlined proposals to call a vote of no confidence in the Government in the autumn.
Under the proposals, Mr Corbyn would lead a “time-limited” government which would extend Article 50 and call a general election.
This was met with fierce opposition from the Lib Dems, with new leader Ms Swinson saying Mr Corbyn was too divisive to lead a government of national unity.
She instead suggested senior Conservative and Labour backbenchers Ken Clarke and Harriet Harman could take the helm instead.