5
5
Sources say it would involve two borders until 2025, one in the Irish Sea and one between Ulster and Ireland.
Downing Street warned EU chiefs if they do not “engage” with Boris’s new legal text he will end all talks and prepare for No Deal instead.
In an exclusive interview on the eve of his first Tory Conference speech as leader, Boris revealed the tight ten-day timetable he faces. He must broker a deal by October 11 — the day the agenda will be set for the crunch EU summit starting on October 17.
But the PM insisted: “Ten days should be enough. If there’s a deal to be done, it could be done in that time. Genuinely. If there isn’t, then we’ll know. That’s the truth.”
Mr Johnson’s long-awaited “alternative arrangements” blueprint to replace the controversial Irish backstop is based around a new system of stand-off customs
checks away from the border. As Britain enters a crucial period of Brexit brinkmanship with the EU:
- Boris also told The Sun he is prepared to listen to the EU’s counter offers and even does not rule out accepting a time limit to the backstop;
- It emerged that EU governments, including France and Germany, are talking about a possible compromise that would include a time limit to the backstop;
- The PM also told voters to expect tax cuts in an upcoming Budget;
- Downing Street is planning to suspend Parliament again next week — but only for three days to prepare for a Queen’s Speech.
The Prime Minister said Chancellor Sajid Javid would put more money in workers’ pockets in his financial plan for the nation expected next month.
Despite already ordering a massive spending spree on the NHS, schools and the police, the PM also signalled there would be more action to further freeze fuel duty or even reduce it.
Boris told The Sun: “We want a high wage, low tax economy.”
'NEW DEAL OR NO DEAL'
Questioned on whether that meant the income tax cuts that were a central pledge of Mr Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign were imminent, the PM added:
“We’ve got a Budget to deliver, you should wait and see. Saj is a great radical and he'll want to do something for reducing the burden of taxation and stimulating growth. That’s what we want to see. That’s where we're going.”
In a strong hint that fuel duty would be frozen again or cut, Boris also insisted that he understands the concerns of struggling motorists as he told them: “I hear you loud and clear.”
But first, the PM revealed how he will sell his new plan for a Brexit deal to EU chiefs as well as MPs when he unveils it tomorrow. Mr Johnson declared of his major offer: “It’s New Deal or No Deal, because we must come out.”
Conceding he faces the toughest two weeks of his Premiership so far, Boris added: “It will be a tough old process in the next few days and we’ll have to work very hard. We have to we have to do our best to get it over the line. It’s something that our friends should definitely accept.
But he also opened up the chance for crucial wiggle room, revealing to The Sun that there is room for negotiation in his text.
While insisting his offer is “a very good deal”, in an answer to whether he was prepared to consider a counter-offer from Brussels, the PM said: “Well, we’ll look at anything, of course.”
Crucially, Boris also did not rule out accepting the current Irish border backstop — but with a time limit of a number of years attached to it to allow Britain to escape the EU’s rules. That is a plan several Cabinet ministers are already pushing for him to accept.
Pressed on a time-limited backstop, he replied: “Well, you know, let’s see where we get to.”
But he also spelt out his limits, as he explained: “You can’t have a situation where the UK is unable to make its own laws and have an independent trade policy.
“We need to respect each other’s positions. I strongly respect the position of the other 27. But for our part, we want to be able to withdraw the whole of the UK, entire, from the EU in a way that protects the UK customs union, which is after all an integral part of statehood.”
Nissan alert
NISSAN will reportedly review its decision to build the popular Qashqai model at its Sunderland plant if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.
It could lead to the plant closing, with major repercussions for the economy of the North East.
The Japanese carmaker got assurances from Theresa May’s government in 2016 that it would be protected from the impact of Brexit.
Nissan insists its plans “have not changed” but a No Deal Brexit will have “serious implications for British industry”.
'VERY SERIOUS TASK'
Sources last night claimed the PM’s plan centred on Northern Ireland having a special relationship with the EU until 2025.
The plan, said to have been briefed to EU capitals, would make a key concession of a regulatory border in the Irish Sea between Britain and the province.
And there would be customs checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Experts said it would effectively mean Northern Ireland staying in large parts of the EU’s single market until 2025.
Told that some Cabinet ministers privately only give him a 30 percent chance of winning a new deal from the EU that can pass the Commons, he replied: “Well, I’ll take that. That's still a good… we’re working very hard. I think there’s room for a good deal to be done.”
Mr Johnson also revealed that he will ask the EU to agree the headline template of his plan to replace the backstop, with finer details to be thrashed out after the UK leaves at the end of the month.
He added: “There are always more details that can be filled in, but the broad outlines are what we need to do. On the specific arrangements you may want to go to in years to come, there will be more conversations to be had.”
In a startling departure from his no compromising stand on Brexit during bitter Commons clashes last month, the PM said he wanted to try to reunite the divided nation and “address the sense of loss of Remainers”.
Saying he was now in “Bruce Banner mode” — the Incredible Hulk’s modest scientist alter ego — Boris insisted he wanted to “take down the temperature, cool the fever and get everybody back together”.
The PM explained: “It’s an emotional thing. And it goes to people’s sense of identity. There’s a very, very serious task for the government to think about how to manage those feelings because they’re real.
“I personally think that we’ll do brilliantly outside. I have no problem at all. But I can see that some people do. And that, obviously as prime minister, I have to think about that, how to bring people together.
”Last week, EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker said a No Deal Brexit would be Britain’s fault.
And he warned that negotiating a future trade agreement with the UK would not be easy in the event of a No Deal.
Mr Juncker and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier claimed they were doing all they could to secure a Brexit agreement.
5
5
5
No comments:
Post a Comment