Johnson to meet Merkel and Macron separately next week

BORIS JOHNSON is expected to visit France and Germany next week for Brexit talks ahead of the G7 meeting of world leaders, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

No 10 has been mulling bilateral meetings with senior figures in the EU so Brexit does not overshadow the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France, which is focused on the environment.

The Prime Minister is likely to meet with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, as early as Tuesday.

The Sunday Telegraph disclosed last weekend that Mr Johnson had accepted an offer from Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, for a meeting to try to break the deadlock over the Northern Irish backstop.

Mr Johnson has been insisting that he wants the 27 EU countries including Ireland to drop the backstop from the Withdrawal Agreement because it would keep the UK closely tied to the EU after Brexit. No 10 declined to comment.

It comes as leaked documents yesterday revealed that Mrs Merkel is to refuse Mr Johnson’s backstop demands and renegotiate the agreement.

Instead, she will tell him that Germany is ready to let Britain walk away from the EU with no deal.

The tough stance emerged from a briefing paper prepared ahead of talks between Sajid Javid, the Chancellor, and Olaf Scholz, his German counterpart, in Berlin yesterday.

Germany believes there is a “high probability” of a no deal on Oct 31, said the document leaked to the Handelsblatt newspaper, as it is “currently unforeseeable” that Mr Johnson “will change his tough negotiating position”.