Face of Nation : Ahead of a crucial summit in 11 days’ time, he insisted a revised agreement was possible “if the EU is willing.” Latvian PM Krisjanis Karins said a new deal “may be a little bit of a long-shot” but was “certainly possible”. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay urged the EU to intensify negotiations on the UK’s plans.
Talks are due to resume on Monday as both parties try to find a new agreement in time for the summit of European leaders on 17 and 18 October. But arrangements for preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland continue to be a sticking point, with the EU calling for “fundamental changes” to the UK’s latest proposals.
Mr Barclay said more advanced negotiations would need to begin “in the coming days” for a deal to be reached before the current Brexit deadline of 31 October. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he believed a deal was possible but said current proposals did not go far enough.
The backstop is the controversial insurance policy that is meant to keep a free-flowing border on the island of Ireland but which critics – including the PM – fear could trap the UK in EU trading rules indefinitely.
Writing in the Sun on Sunday and the Sunday Express, Mr Johnson said his untested plan to use technology to eliminate customs border checks would take the UK out of EU trade rules while respecting the Northern Ireland peace process.
“I say to our European friends: grasp the opportunity our new proposal provides. Join us at the negotiating table in a spirit of compromise and co-operation,” he said. He claimed MPs from “every wing of the Conservative Party”, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party and from Labour have said “our proposed deal looks like one they can get behind”.
But he said “there will be no more dither and delay” and the UK would leave the EU on 31 October with or without a deal. Baroness Chakrabarti said the prime minister “speaks with forked tongue” on the possibility of asking for an extension, adding he “seems to think he is above the law”.
She insisted there were no loopholes in the legislation, adding that the conditions under which the PM must ask for another Brexit delay were “explicit and specific”. Mr Barclay confirmed he would be travelling to the Netherlands on Sunday evening as part of an effort to secure support for the PM’s plan in Europe, and urged the EU to show “creativity and flexibility”.
He indicated the UK was open to some flexibility on how authorisation from Northern Irish politicians would have to be secured for parts of the PM’s plan to come into effect. “The key issue is the principle of consent, that’s why the backstop was rejected three times,” he said.
Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins told the Andrew Marr Show the UK’s border ideas were a “basis for negotiations”, although he noted the EU “doesn’t have a whole lot of wriggle room”. But he said: “It depends on one crucial element: that also Mr Johnson as well as the EU are willing and ready to move in a compromise manner. If the offer from the UK turns out to be ‘take it or leave it’, it’s going to be very difficult.”
Mr Varadkar said on Saturday a deal was “still possible” but the EU did not believe the current proposals from Mr Johnson “form the basis for deeper negotiations”.
