Leo and Boris in f inal bid to avoid crash-out
LEO Varadkar will hold crunch talks with Boris Johnson today in a lastditch bid to avert a crash-out Brexit.
The Taoiseach and the British prime minister will come face to face for the third time this afternoon in a private engagement in the northwest of England in a bid to make some progress ahead of next week’s crunch European Council summit.
This meeting was billed yesterday by Dublin as being a ‘private meeting to allow both leaders and their teams to have detailed discussions about the process for securing agreement for a Brexit deal’.
It is expected that Mr Varadkar is set to use the engagement as an opportunity to remind the prime minister that Ireland will work to achieve a deal ‘but not at any cost’. Details of the location of this afternoon’s meeting remained secret last night.
It comes after the pair spoke for 40 minutes on the phone on Tuesday evening after which a spokesman for Mr Varadkar said ‘both sides strongly reiterated their desire to reach a Brexit deal’.
This comes after the British government sent a proposal to Brussels last week – in a bid to overcome the current backstop impasse – which would effectively see the North tied to the EU single market but leave the customs union.
This document also included the controversial proposal to give Stormont what would essentially be a veto, as it would allow the Northern Ireland Assembly to first approve the new arrangements and subsequently vote every four years if they want to keep them or not.
It is anticipated that the meeting this afternoon will be a last-ditch attempt to reach a resolution and avoid a NoDeal outcome. The Taoiseach may tell Mr Johnson what he said in the Dáil yesterday, that ‘as far as the Government is concerned, we do want a deal, we are willing to work hard to get one, we will work at the last moment to get one – but not any cost’.
Mr Varadkar made these remarks in the Dáil yesterday, where he also said ‘we are absolutely open to proposals that take into account the democratic wishes and the views of the people of Northern Ireland in relation to consent
‘Strong desire to reach a deal’
and democracy, but we need to make sure that any such arrangements are workable’.
This came after it was reported earlier this week that in an anonymous briefing sent to The Spectator, a Downing Street official revealed how the British Government plans to avoid the Benn Act and how talks with the EU will break down leading to a NoDeal exit. Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Varadkar said: ‘I don’t think much of an anonymous briefing, whether they come from Downing Street or if they come from my own ranks, quite frankly.’
He said part of the difficulty is the UK’s position that Northern Ireland must leave the EU customs union.
He claimed it has adopted this position whether the people of Northern Ireland ‘like it or not’. He said: ‘That creates
‘That creates huge difficulties’
huge difficulties for us because we want there to be a deal that respects the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland, and, indeed, the people in this Republic, too.’
Meanwhile, a Northern Ireland-only backstop with Stormont being handed an opt-out vote has been branded a ‘non-runner’ by the DUP.
Reports from Brussels suggest the EU could offer the arrangement as a way to break the Brexit impasse.
According to The Times, the EU may be willing to accept a Northern Ireland backstop – with the region remaining in the single market for goods and the customs union – and allow Stormont to vote after a set period on whether it wants to exit the mechanism.
But the DUP’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson rejected the idea, claiming it would hand Sinn Féin a veto.