Hands up I can get a deal, says Boris
BORIS Johnson vowed to “work very hard” for a Brexit deal as he began fresh talks yesterday to try to break the deadlock over Brexit.
The Prime Minister met senior Democratic Unionist figures to discuss ideas for solving the row over the Irish border
And he signalled he was preparing another European push to revive stalled Brussels talks.
“We’re going to get a deal and we’ll work very hard to get a deal,” he said during a visit to Pimlico primary school in south London.
“I was in Ireland yesterday talking to our Irish friends about how to do that. And we’re going to go to Brussels and chat to some other European capitals.
“There is a way of getting a deal but it will take a lot of hard work. We must be prepared to come out without one. If absolutely necessary, we will come out with no deal.”
Mr Johnson was understood to be focused on ideas to replace the socalled “backstop” insurance policy, but Downing Street rejected suggestions they could involve Northern Ireland remaining locked in a string of EU regulations.
“We are not seeking a Northern Ireland-only backstop,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman said, before Mr Johnson’s talks with DUP leader Arlene Foster and her deputy, Nigel Dodds.
Senior Tories believe reviving the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont and giving it a key role in overseeing new border arrangements could be a solution.
Mrs Foster said: “The backstop leaves us in a separate customs union from the rest of the United Kingdom, leaves us taking rules and regulations from the European Union without any democratic say in those rules and regulations, so that is unacceptable.
“I think what we want to do is to find a sensible deal, a way forward that recognises our unique history and geography.”
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson dismissed critics of his decision to suspend Parliament until October 14, insisting it was to allow a new Queen’s Speech.
He said: “This stuff about it being anti-democratic, I mean donnez-moi un break, what a load of nonsense.
“We were very, very clear that if people wanted a democratic moment, if they wanted an election, we offered it to the Labour opposition and mysteriously they decided not to go for it.” Earlier, the Prime Minister told Cabinet ministers he planned to lead “a one-nation government which would respect the result of the referendum by leaving the EU on October 31, while energetically focusing on the NHS, tackling violent crime, education and the cost of living”.
Mr Johnson said the Government would use education, infrastructure and technology to achieve a more equal spread of wealth around the country and that he intended to be “the most liberal Conservative prime minister in decades”. Yesterday, former work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd, who quit at the weekend, told constituents that she will not run in her Hastings and Rye constituency at the next general election.
She said to them in a letter: “Unfortunately, I no longer believe that getting that [Brexit] deal is the central objective of the Government.
“This, combined with the expulsion of 21 good Conservative colleagues from the Parliamentary party, means I no longer feel able to take the Conservative whip.”