Johnson: 38 days for Brexit deal or we walk
PM warns EU that Britain will accept No Deal and move on if deadline is not met
BORIS JOHNSON will today give the European Union just 38 days to strike a Brexit deal, warning that if there is no breakthrough by Oct 15 Britain will accept No Deal and “move on”.
The Prime Minister will make clear that the UK “cannot and will not compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country” to get a trade deal, as he insists failing to sign a deal would be “a good outcome for the UK”.
Mr Johnson moved decisively to break months of deadlock between negotiators over the terms of the UK’S trading arrangements with the EU after the end of a Brexit transition period in December. His strongly worded statement will fire the starting gun on a five-week period of negotiations about two areas of disagreement – over fishing rights in UK sovereign waters and state aid rules in the UK.
Lord Frost, the Prime Minister’s chief Brexit negotiator, is due to meet his EU opposite number, Michel Barnier, for the eighth round of talks in London tomorrow. A ninth round is planned for Brussels later this month.
Mr Johnson will say today: “We are now entering the final phase of our negotiations with the EU. The EU has been very clear about the timetable. I am too. There needs to be an agreement with our European friends by the time of the European Council on Oct 15 if it is going to be in force by the end of the year.
“So there is no sense in thinking about timelines that go beyond that point. If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us. And we should both accept that, and move on.”
In a rare interview yesterday, Lord Frost made it clear that Mr Johnson’s Government had learnt the lesson of the mistakes made by Theresa May’s administration, and would not “blink” in the talks. The Government is also planning to publish the Internal Market Bill this week to formalise trading rules within the UK after the end of the transition period, so that the country can sign trade deals. Sections of the bill will override key elements of the withdrawal agreement, eliminating the legal force of certain aspects of the agreement such as state aid and Northern Ireland customs, it was claimed last night.
The move could undermine the Northern Ireland protocol which was signed last October to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, according to The Financial Times. Michel Barnier said last week a “precise implementation” of the agreement was crucial to the success of the negotiations.
Yesterday, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said that the Brexit negotiations faced a “moment of reckoning” this week, as he insisted that the UK would not “haggle away” the issues of state aid and fisheries. He said that the negotiations had “boiled down to two outstanding bones of contention”, with Brussels refusing to budge on state aid and fisheries. Mr Johnson will say: “As a government, we are preparing, at our borders and at our ports, to be ready for it. We will have full control over our laws, our rules, and our fishing waters. We will have the freedom to do trade deals with every country in the world. And we will prosper mightily as a result. We will, of course, always be ready to talk to our EU friends even in these circumstances. We will be ready to find sensible accommodations on practical issues – such as flights, lorry transport or scientific cooperation – if the EU wants to do that. Our door will never be closed, and we will trade as friends and partners – but without a free trade agreement.”
He will add: “There is still an agreement to be had – even at this late stage.
“If the EU are ready to rethink their
current positions and agree this, I will be delighted.
“But we cannot, and will not compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country to get it.”
Last night, David Jones, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPS, threw his weight behind Mr Johnson’s intervention.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “We should be prepared to walk away, and trade on World Trade Organisation terms.”
In his interview with the Mail on Sunday, Lord Frost insisted that the UK would not agree to being a “client state” to the EU.
He also accused the government of Mrs May of caving in.
He said: “We came in after a government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments, and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously.
“So a lot of what we are trying to do this year is to get them to realise that we mean what we say, and that they should take our position seriously.”
That prompted Lord Barwell, Mrs May’s former chief of staff to accuse Lord Frost of having a “brass neck” to make such a comment because, he said, Mr Johnson’s withdrawal agreeagreed. ment was “95 per cent the work of his predecessors”.
Brussels reacted coolly to Mr Johnson’s intervention last night, with one EU diplomat recalling previously optimistic remarks from the Prime Minister about how to get a Brexit trade deal The EU official said: “We all remember what happened the last time when someone wanted ‘to put a tiger in a tank’ and ‘add a bit of oomph in the negotiations’. Message spinning and posturing is all fine, but it doesn’t really bring us an inch closer to a solution.
“There has been absolutely no movement from the British side in the talks yet. If this approach doesn’t change quickly, we will be on a road to no deal with all its negative economic consequences.
“We are working hard to reach a deal with the UK. We will do everything in our power to reach a deal, as Michel Barnier said last week.”
The diplomat also said: “If the UK no longer sees the merit in a deal, that would be unfortunate.
“It would make Britain the only country in this part of the world that doesn’t have a relationship with the EU in one form or another.”
The Daily Telegraph understands that Brussels will call an emergency no-deal Brexit summit in November if a trade agreement is not finalised by the end of October.