EU will have just 38 days to strike a Brexit deal, warns Boris Johnson

”The UK ‘cannot compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country’

Boris Johnson will give the European Union just 38 days to strike a Brexit deal, warning that if there is no breakthrough by October 15 Britain will accept a no-deal scenario and “move on”.

The Prime Minister will make clear that the UK “cannot and will not compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country” to get a trade deal as he insists failing to sign a trade deal would be “a good outcome for the UK”.

Mr Johnson moved decisively to break months of deadlock between negotiators over the terms of the UK’s trading arrangements with the EU after the end of a Brexit transition period in December.

His strongly worded statement will fire the starting gun in a five-week period of negotiations about two areas of disagreement over fishing rights in UK sovereign waters and state aid rules in the UK.

Lord Frost, Mr Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator, is due to meet with his EU opposite number Michel Barnier for the eighth round of talks in London on Tuesday. A ninth round is planned for Brussels later this month.

Mr Johnson will say on Monday: “We are now entering the final phase of our negotiations with the EU. The EU have been very clear about the timetable. I am too.

“There needs to be an agreement with our European friends by the time of the European Council on October 15 if it’s going to be in force by the end of the year.

“So there is no sense in thinking about timelines that go beyond that point. If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on.”

In a rare interview on Sunday, Lord Frost made clear that Mr Johnson’s government had learned the lesson of the mistakes by Theresa May’s administration and would not “blink” in the talks.

The Government is also planning to publish the Internal Market Bill this week to formalise trading rules within the British isles after the end of the transition period so the UK can sign trade deals.

Sections of the bill will override key elements of the withdrawal agreement, eliminating the legal force of certain aspects of the agreement such as state aid and Northern Ireland customs, it was claimed on Sunday night.

The move would undermine the Northern Ireland protocol which was signed last October to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, according to The Financial Times.

Michel Barnier said last week a “precise implementation” of the agreement was crucial to the success of the negotiations.

On Sunday Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said the Brexit negotiations faced a “moment of reckoning” this week, as he insisted the UK would not “haggle away” the issues of state aid and fisheries.

Mr Raab said the negotiations had “boiled down to two outstanding bones of contention”, with Brussels refusing to budge on state aid and fisheries.

He will say: “As a Government we are preparing, at our borders and at our ports, to be ready for it. We will have full control over our laws, our rules, and our fishing waters.

“We will have the freedom to do trade deals with every country in the world. And we will prosper mightily as a result. We will of course always be ready to talk to our EU friends even in these circumstances.

“We will be ready to find sensible accommodations on practical issues such as flights, lorry transport, or scientific cooperation, if the EU wants to do that.

“Our door will never be closed and we will trade as friends and partners – but without a free trade agreement.”

He will add: “There is still an agreement to be had … Even at this late stage, if the EU are ready to rethink their current positions and agree this I will be delighted.

“However, we cannot and will not compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country to get it.”

On Sunday night, David Jones, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, threw his weight behind Mr Johnson’s intervention, telling The Telegraph: “We should be prepared to walk away and trade on WTO terms.”

Source: TheTelegraph