7 frantic days will decide UK’s future
IT IS the make-or-break week that will decide the fate of Boris Johnson’s Brexit and maybe even of Brexit itself.
But the momentous seven days begin today with a crucial event he is not invited to – a meeting in Paris between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel.
Their dinner in the Elysee Palace this evening will go a long way to deciding how other EU leaders judge Mr Johnson’s ‘deal’ with Irish premier Leo Varadkar.
Tomorrow, Mr Johnson will hope the Queen’s Speech will give the country a vision of his post-Brexit UK as Her Majesty sets out the Government’s new programme of legislation.
But the glittering pomp of the state opening of Parliament will arguably be overshadowed in Brexit importance by a meeting in drab surroundings in Brussels.
There, Michel Barnier, EU chief Brexit negotiator, is due to brief EU ambassadors on the progress of talks.
On Tuesday, Ministers from across the EU are set to meet in Luxembourg where the overall outline of a deal must be agreed if it is to be signed off by the end of the week. Then on Wednesday Mr Macron and Ms Merkel will hold another ‘tete-a-tete’ ahead of a joint Franco-German cabinet meeting in Toulouse.
On Thursday Mr Johnson will join the Council of Ministers summit in Brussels to begin debating approval of the deal and/or a delay to the entire Brexit process.
Sometime on Friday the Prime Minister will know whether the EU has signed off his deal or read the last rites over it.
The week reaches its momentous climax with a Saturday sitting of Parliament – the first since the Falklands conflict.
If a deal has been agreed, Mr Johnson will seek to get the Commons to approve it.
If he has failed to get a deal, the PM will fight to get MPs to agree to his ‘do or die’ pledge to achieve Brexit by October 31 regardless.
In either case, Labour MPs and Tory rebels are threatening to combine to force him to accept a delay or a second referendum as the price of backing any deal. Late on Saturday, Mr Johnson and the country will find out just who has won.