Boris Johnson talks up odds of deal with EU if Brussels ‘comes its senses’ and rules out second Scottish Independence referendum
BORIS Johnson urged Brussels to “come to its senses” over Brexit - as he contradicted top Ministers about the odds of a No Deal.
The PM insisted that provided the EU showed “goodwill and common sense” the chances of a cliff edge exit on October 31 remained “a million to one”.
But he called on the EU to make a bumper free trade deal possible by ditching its red lines – and binning the controversial Irish border ‘backstop’.
Speaking on a visit to Scotland, he insisted he was convinced that with “two, mature, political entities - the UK and the EU - we can get this thing done”.
But he confirmed he was not willing to enter fresh talks until EU leaders admitted the Withdrawal Agreement struck with Theresa May was “dead”.
The PM said: “My approach is to be very outward going.
“I don’t want the UK to be aloof or hanging back, I want us to engage, to hold out the hand of friendship, to go the extra thousands of miles.
“But what we want to do is make absolutely clear that the backstop is no good."
“The Withdrawal Agreement is dead, it’s got to go.”
Challenged about his campaign pledge that the odds of a No Deal were a “million to one”, he replied: “Provided there is sufficient goodwill on the part of our partners that is exactly where I would put the odds.”
BALANCE SHIFTED TOWARDS NO DEAL
The comments came just a day after Michael Gove said the UK “must operate on the assumption” the EU will not budge in talks.
He warned No Deal was “a very real prospect”.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab added the “balance has shifted” towards a No Deal.
And Downing Street confirmed plans for a £100 million advertising campaign to get Britain ready for a No Deal on October 31- the biggest since WWII.
But No.10 insiders insisted all Ministers were on the “same page” and the PM was saying nothing different to his ‘War Cabinet’ which met for the first time yesterday.
The latest push by the Government came in another extraordinary day:
- Boris Johnson told the “nonsensical” SNP to forget the idea of another Scottish independence referendum as he met Nicola Sturgeon – to a chorus of boos from crowds in Edinburgh.
- Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson vowed to work with the PM and “wholeheartedly support” him in trying to get a Brexit deal over the line after their own face-to-face talks.
- The Pound fell to a 28-month low against the US dollar on worries about a No Deal.
- Boris Johnson’s new senior EU negotiator David Frost warned EU officials not to “underestimate” the PM and reiterated Britain’s commitment to leaving on October 31st.
- David Frost separately contacted officials in Ireland ahead of talks between the PM and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Rebel Tory Oliver Letwin reiterated his opposition to a No Deal. But he said that despite months of talks with MPs in other parties. “I am accepting that we may well not be able to stop it”.
And he panned Theresa May for failing to prepare Britain enough over the past two years for such an eventuality.
'MAKE SENSE OF BREXIT'
New Chancellor Sajid Javid is expected to confirm he is making more than £1 billion available in extra funding for No Deal preparation in a speech either on Wednesday or later this week.
Bids are being sent into the Treasury by government departments.
Mr Johnson – on a visit to the Faslane naval base in Scotland – said his Government’s intention was to come out of the customs union and single market “to make sense of Brexit”.
And he laid the blame for the current deadlock with the EU squarely at Theresa May’s door.
He said: “It hasn’t been at all clear that that was the point of the UK government before now. There’s no point coming out of the EU if you’re going to end up being run by the EU.
“Brussels has been a bit baffled about what the UK position really was.”
But sources in the Commission insisted the EU was ready to call Boris Johnson’s bluff.
Claiming it was clear Boris Johnson was trying to build pressure by running down the clock, Eurocrats hit back by saying they were preparing to turn an EU Council on October 17 into a mammoth No Deal summit.
They believe Mr Johnson will try and use the October meeting to demand major concessions on Brexit in person and trying to manufacture a Greek crisis-style all-nighter.
But they are instead planning for a blitz on contingency measures and communiques bracing businesses and financial markets for No Deal on October 31.
A senior EU source told The Sun: “It’ll be about where are we heading with the Brits, where do we stand with the implementation of contingency measures.
“If we’re really in the deal making business this is not a thing you invent on a small piece of paper on the corner of a table at 3am.
“You don’t do a deal by simply arriving on the 17th after having had a kind of general exchange about what they think in Britain now.”
An EU official added the EU will not agree to any “joint actions” with the UK to soften the impact of No Deal.
They told The Sun: “There are no good options arising from the course PM Johnson has chosen.
“At least he could have sounded out various EU players before choosing confrontation. It’s unclear how this approach creates space for talks.”
Eurocrats have said a two-week window between the end of the Tory party conference on October 2 and the summit could be pivotal.
But they also suspect Mr Johnson may take Britain out with No Deal then call an election to secure a mandate for negotiating a new deal from the outside.
The Sun says
THE world should be under no illusion whose fault the potential chaos of a No Deal Brexit will be. It will be squarely down to the EU and the Irish prime minister.
Boris Johnson and the Brexit Government he has assembled have both democracy and cold logic on their side.
The referendum verdict wasn’t specifically for a deal, or No Deal. It was just for Brexit. But the only meaningful and complete exit now possible, thanks to EU intransigence, is a clean break.
Boris would rightly prefer a deal. But Brussels seems staggeringly slow to accept that Theresa May’s is dead. It struggles even to grasp why it is toxic.
Eurocrats who cannot compute why anyone would want to leave the EU seem even more baffled that, yes, that means ALL of it. It’s not hard, though. The Irish backstop carries the risk that we would never escape the customs union, crippling our economic future, and thus never truly leave at all.
For three years Brussels has played hardball, convinced that like all previous inconvenient votes ours could be reversed. Failing that, the plan was to keep us permanently half-in, half-out while politically powerless to escape.
Ireland’s rookie PM Leo Varadkar championed this strategy. So it is notable, now we finally have a Government serious about No Deal, that he is being implored by some in Ireland to rethink.
No Deal will hit us and the Continent hard. Even the Europhile CBI admits that “the EU is behind the UK in its plans to prevent the worst effects”.
Ireland is likely to suffer worst. Is Varadkar ready for the political damage of the economic harm he will have inflicted on his people? It will vastly outweigh any bounce from being tough on the Brits.
Time Brussels made Boris a better offer.
The European Commission separately dismissed a report from the CBI that it was “lagging behind” the UK in preparations for a No Deal.
The marked change in tone from the CBI followed demands from No10 to business organisations to “prove you’re on our side”.
A Commission spokeswoman said: “A No Deal scenario is not our preferred outcome and we continue to believe that an orderly Brexit is the best outcome for all.”
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