LE STITCH UP
Baying anti-Brexit crowd forces Boris to duck press conference – then Luxembourg PM takes to stage alone to attack Johnson
THE EU was accused of a stitch-up last night following an apparent attempt to humiliate Boris Johnson during Brexit talks in Luxembourg.
In a calculated diplomatic snub, the Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel refused to move a joint press conference with Mr Johnson indoors to prevent the British PM being drowned out by a deafening anti-Brexit protest.
Instead Mr Bettel pressed ahead with the event alone, delivering a furious anti-Brexit lecture to cheering protesters while gesturing at the empty lectern set up for Mr Johnson.
Mr Bettel branded Brexit a ‘nightmare’ and said it was time for Mr Johnson to ‘stop talking and act’ by bringing forward proposals for a new deal.
The Prime Minister attempted to make light of the row last night, saying it would not have been ‘fair’ to Mr Bettel to continue with the joint event as ‘ there was clearly going to be a lot of noise and our points would have been drowned out’.
But Government sources rounded on the hosts, saying that Mr Bettel’s office had refused to move the event indoors when it became clear the noise outside was too great.
Mr Bettel told Mr Johnson that protesters, who heckled the British PM as he arrived at the meeting, would be ‘respectful’ during the press conference.
Officials said Mr Bettel had also refused a request to remove Mr Johnson’s lectern and Union flag before starting the press conference, leaving it to look like the British PM had simply refused to turn up. One Government source said: ‘Friends don’t behave like this.’
Another pointed out that Mr Johnson only agreed to see Mr Bettel as a ‘courtesy’ after European Commission chief JeanClaude Juncker asked to move a planned meeting from Brussels to Luxembourg. ‘It was a stitch-up,’ the source said. ‘ But let’s see what other EU leaders make of this behaviour.’
Tory MPs also criticised Mr Bettel last night.
Former Brexit minister David Jones said: ‘If Remain supporters are revelling in this gratuitous rudeness to a British Prime Minister, they should examine their own motives. Most patriotic people would say it’s another good reason to leave on October 31.’
The row threatened to overshadow talks between Mr Johnson and Mr Juncker in a Luxembourg restaurant.
But a senior Government source last night issued a downbeat assessment of the prospects for a deal following those talks, saying: ‘It’s clear Brussels is not yet ready to find the compromises required for a deal so No Deal remains a real possibility – as the gap we need to bridge remains quite large.’ It came as:
David Cameron stepped up his criticism of Mr Johnson’s decision to expel 21 rebel MPs, warning it would be ‘disastrous’ for Tory prospects if they were not let back in;
Mr Johnson said it was ‘claptrap’ to claim he had gagged MPs, as the Supreme Court prepared to rule on whether his decision to suspend parliament for five weeks was legal;
‘Gratuitous rudeness’
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the ‘contours of a deal’ with the EU were ‘now very clear’, but warned an agreement would need ‘flexibility’ from Brussels;
Mr Johnson described the idea of another Brexit delay as ‘crackers’, as Government sources suggested he would rather go to court than obey a new law requiring him to ask for another Brexit extension if he fails to get a deal by October 19;
John Bercow warned that the Brexit debate could last for 20 years, as he warned there was ‘no force on earth’ that would prevent MPs having their say;
Downing Street said Mr Johnson had ruled out extending the Brexit transition period beyond the end of next year even if he strikes a deal in the coming weeks.
Mr Juncker and Mr Johnson held a two-hour working lunch in finedining restaurant Le Bouquet Garni, just five-minutes from the Ministry of State, where the Prime Minister met Mr Bettel and where the joint press conference was due to take place.
The 18th-century dining spot is located in the heart of medieval Luxembourg and the menu was changed at the 11th-hour for the pair. They were originally supposed to eat snails, salmon and cheese, but instead feasted on pan-cooked chicken oysters, butter-roasted pollock with creamy risotto, then red and black berries, iced marshmallow and basil sorbet.
After the two-hour lunch – the first face-to-face meeting since Mr Johnson became PM – Mr Juncker told reporters it was a ‘friendly meeting’, adding: ‘Negotiations will continue at high speed.’
Privately, officials said the UK was unlikely to publish formal proposals ahead of the Conservative Party conference at the end of this month, when Mr Johnson will be anxious to avoid giving the impression he is considering further compromise. Sources pointed to the long history of the EU leaking Brit
ish proposals in order to discredit them.
Mr Johnson yesterday acknowledged the EU was ‘still officially sticking on their position that the backstop has got to be there.’ In an interview with the BBC, he said a deal was only possible if there is ‘movement from them on that crucial issue’.
And he suggested a key part of his plan is ensuring that northern Ireland has a democratic lock on any move to keep it tied more closely to the EU than the rest of the UK.
Mr Johnson warned that failure to resolve the backstop would mean ‘we’ll have an exit with no Deal on october 31’, adding: ‘That’s not what I want. It’s not what they want. And we’re going to work very hard to avoid it. But that’s the reality.’
A Luxembourg government official acknowledged that the UK had asked to switch yesterday’s press conference indoors because of ‘concern about noise levels’. But the source said there ‘wasn’t enough room’ indoors to accommodate all the journalists who had attended the event.
however, Tory MP nigel Evans said: ‘ The way [ Mr Bettel] grandstanded in front of an empty lectern demonstrated what his real intention was.
‘he wanted to give our PM a lecture in front of a hostile crowd. It’s pathetic.’