PM THREATENS EU: PLAY BALL OR IT’S HARRY AND MEGHAN NO-DEAL! Canada won’t pay for security bill
Britain will quit talks in June if Brussels insists on meddling with rules on trade
BORIS Johnson will walk out of EU trade talks in June unless progress has been made towards a deal that keeps the UK free of Brussels meddling.
Amid growing frustration in Downing Street at the EU’s demands, the Prime Minister set a firm deadline within four months for deciding whether to continue with the discussions on a
free trade deal. He also instructed ministers and officials to press ahead with preparations for full customs and security checks at ports and airports from January 1 in case talks collapse.
And in a further ratcheting up of the rhetoric ahead of the first round of wrangling next week, Michael Gove evoked memories of Margaret Thatcher’s titanic clashes with Brussels in the Commons yesterday.
Quoting the Iron Lady, the Cabinet minister declared “No, no, no!” in riposte to Labour calls for the UK to stay tied into EU rules.
He told MPs: “To be clear, we will not be seeking to align dynamically with EU rules on EU terms governed by EU laws and EU institutions.
“The British people voted to take back control, to bring power home and to have the rules governing this country made by those who are directly accountable to the people of this country, and that is what we are delivering.”
The Government’s latest salvo in the increasingly bitter row over the
UK’s future relationship with the EU came ahead of the opening of the trade negotiations on Monday.
Mr Johnson’s lead negotiator David Frost is due to lock horns with his EU counterpart Michel Barnier in the first session in Brussels, with later bouts due to be staged in London.
But a 30-page Whitehall document setting out Mr Frost’s negotiating mandate signalled that the talks could be cut off after less than four months if the EU continues to demand a level-playing field for regulations and standards.
Entitled “The Future Relationship With The EU”, the paper insisted the broad outline of the future UK-EU relationship must be “capable of being rapidly finalised by September” with a serious assessment of progress to be made in June.
In a firm warning to the EU not to indulge in stonewalling tactics, the document said: “If that does not seem to be the case at the June meeting, the Government will need to decide whether the UK’s attention should move from negotiations and focus solely on continuing domestic preparations to exit the transition period in an orderly time table.”
Any deal on the future relationship between London and Brussels must have a comprehensive free trade agreement at its core, the document said.
That agreement should be supplemented by separate international treaties covering fishing, law enforcement and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, transport and energy.
For the potential deal, the Government had “a vision of a relationship based on friendly cooperation between sovereign equals with both parties respecting one another’s legal autonomy and right to manage their own resources as they see fit,” the document said.
It added: “That means that we will not agree to any obligations for our laws to be aligned with the EU’s, or for the EU’s institutions, including the Court of Justice, to have any jurisdiction in the UK.”
Pointing out that preparations for no agreement are beginning, the document said: “The Government will work hard to agree arrangements on these lines.
“However, if it is not possible to negotiate a satisfactory outcome, then the trading relationship with the EU will rest on the 2019 Withdrawal Agreement and will look similar to Australia’s.” Following the publication of the negotiating mandate, the Prime Minister said: “We wouldn’t ask the EU to follow every change in UK legislation, so it doesn’t make any sense for them to make the same requirement of us, and that’s where we are. All we want is mutual recognition of each other’s high standards, and access to each other’s markets.”
Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier last night said: “We take note of the UK’s mandate published today and will discuss our respective positions on Monday.”
European Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant said: “In relation to any timeline that was referred to by the UK side today, there is a mid-year rendezvous in June to assess where we are with the negotiations.
“So this is probably a very fair timeline to take by the UK Prime Minister for a rendezvous in which we take stock of the future and chances for a deal, what type of deal.”
EU NEGOTIATORS are in for a shock when formal talks begin next week on Britain’s future relationship with the remaining member states. Everything has changed. When Theresa May’s team sat down with EU officials to thrash out the Withdrawal Agreement her party was divided and she led a minority government in a Parliament packed with Remainers who were plotting a second referendum.
Today Brexit champion Boris Johnson is in No 10 and he has a giant majority in the Commons and an unequivocal election mandate to restore British sovereignty.
He has already made it clear he is prepared to walk away from the talks in June if progress is not made.
But Brussels must come to terms with an even bigger change than the dramatic strengthening of our negotiating position and the bullishness of the PM’s tactics.
Mr Johnson has a very different idea of what failure looks like to the previous regime. For our PM, the collapse of the talks would not be the ultimate disaster.
The true catastrophe would be if Britain surrendered to the Eurocrats and agreed to abide by their regulations and the jurisdiction of their judges.
Michel Barnier and his wily colleagues should grasp the simple fact that the PM and the people of Britain will never allow this to happen.