Face of Nation : Talks will resume on Monday after the EU said the UK’s proposed alternative to the Irish backstop could not be the “basis” for a legally-binding treaty. The UK has said it would work on the details before then but there was “no path” to a deal without alternative arrangements in Northern Ireland.
Boris Johnson has insisted the only options are a “new deal or no deal”. Earlier on Friday, he posted a message on social media saying there would be “no delay” to the UK’s exit beyond the 31 October deadline. This was despite the government stating, in papers submitted to a Scottish court, that the PM would comply with legislation passed by Parliament, known as the Benn Act.
This requires him to send a letter to the EU asking for a further three-month Brexit extension if no deal is agreed by 19 October – a day after a crucial summit of European leaders. UK has said its new proposals, presented on Wednesday, represent a “significant” shift and the basis for a “fair and reasonable compromise” after months of deadlock.
The BBC’s Adam Fleming said, after five hours of talks on Friday, the two sides have not agreed to enter the so-called “tunnel” of intense negotiations on a final legal text.
He said the UK wanted that process to be under way by now but the EU is worried that the UK wants to leave too many details about customs and regulatory checks in Northern Ireland to be agreed during the post-Brexit transition period.
The EU’s negotiators told diplomats on Friday that questions and gaps still remained and that fundamental changes were needed to make the UK blueprint acceptable. The UK subsequently informed the European Commission it would do further work over the weekend and possibly submit clarifications by Monday – while stressing that the EU also needed to “move at pace” and the backstop must be replaced.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage told the BBC that Mr Johnson was “deluding” himself if he thought he could do a deal, saying the odds were “hovering close to zero”. He told Radio 4’s Any Questions that Brexiteers’ trust in the prime minister would “evaporate” if he failed to keep his promises to meet the 31 October deadline.
Labour’s Barry Gardiner told the same programme the PM seemed to be “lying to himself” over the Brexit deadline and he had a “tangential grasp” of the truth. But Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said people needed to “move away from that kind of language” and the PM was “sincere” in his intentions.
While there were “hard yards” ahead in the talks, he said 19 October was an “eon away” and Mr Johnson was focused on bridging the gap between the two sides.
Anti-Brexit campaigners say Mr Johnson cannot be trusted, given the apparent contradiction between his repeated insistence on a 31 October Brexit and documents seen by Edinburgh’s Court of Session suggesting he will request a delay if the conditions of the Benn Act are met.
