Johnson’s Plan for EU Divorce Deal Hits Trouble: Brexit Update

(Bloomberg) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will present a new plan for a Brexit deal to the European Union within days, but there are already signs it may fail.

While some purist euroskeptics in Johnson’s ruling Conservative party are willing to compromise, the Irish government has said his proposals so far for resolving the Brexit impasse are a non-starter.

The key sticking point remains how to ensure there are no checks on goods crossing the land border between the U.K. and Ireland. For Johnson, it is vital to ensure Britain is not trapped indefinitely in the so-called backstop arrangement, which he says would tie the U.K. into the EU’s customs rules, defeating the point of Brexit.

U.K.’s Johnson Confronts Moment of Truth for Brexit Strategy

Key Developments:

Irish broadcaster RTE reports the U.K. proposed placing checks five to 10 miles from the border in an earlier document. Johnson says there has been “confusion;” he says “we don’t want to see new border posts just away from the border.” He doesn’t say what the new proposal is. He says there will have to be some checks, but doesn’t say where.Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney says what has been proposed so far won’t workNew blueprint expected to be presented this week; Johnson says now is when the “rubber hits the road”

Plan Violates EU Law: Germany’s Roettgen (10:50 a.m.)

The EU isn’t responding particularly positively to the leak of the U.K.’s earlier proposal for the Irish border. This tweet, from the chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, sums things up.

“Johnson simply doesn’t learn: his latest #Brexit plans are not serious and violate the law,” Norbert Roettgen said. “He wants to ask EU not to extend the deadline & proposes a backstop that de facto is a hard border. Not least to protect the sovereignty of the UK parliament, #EU should give long extension.”

Baker Warns Johnson Over Brexit Deal (9:30 a.m.)

Steve Baker, who leads the pro-Brexit European Research Group caucus in Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, warned he would vote against any deal the prime minister brought back from Brussels if it didn’t mean a proper split from the European Union.

“I’m going to have to say to the public, to Brexit Party voters, Conservative voters, to Nigel Farage: this really is Brexit and you should back it,” Baker told the BBC on Tuesday. “If I can’t do that, I’ll vote against it.” Baker said he was “highly confident” Johnson would only ask him to vote on a “good deal.”

Baker said some hardening of the Irish border was an inevitable consequence of leaving the EU, but that technology and other solutions will minimize the impact on businesses and people. Additional checks are “inescapable” because the U.K. will not stay in the EU’s customs union or single market, he said.

“People need to understand, it’s these arrangements with a deal, or these arrangements with no deal,” he said. “There’s no world in which we’re doing something other than this.”

Johnson Blames Sexual Allegation Woes on Brexit (8:45 a.m.)

In a round of interviews on broadcast media, Johnson repeatedly said claims made about his sexual relationships are being used by his political opponents who want to frustrate Brexit.

An allegation by journalist Charlotte Edwardes — that Johnson had touched her thigh at a lunch twenty years ago — was denied again by Johnson. He told BBC radio the reason these allegations are surfacing now is “a lot of people don’t want Brexit to be done” and “rightly or wrongly they see me as the person who is helping to deliver Brexit.”

“There is a concerted effort to frustrate Brexit,” he said.

Johnson also denied suggestions from his sister, Rachel, that he is pursuing the interests of financial backers set to gain from a no-deal Brexit. He told LBC radio his sister was wrong.

Johnson to Suspend Parliament for Queen Speech (8:42 a.m.)

The prime minister suggested he’s preparing to suspend — or prorogue — Parliament again in order to lay out his government’s legislative agenda in what’s known as a Queen’s Speech.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that his previous five-week suspension of Parliament to allow for the speech was “unlawful.” The judges noted that pausing for a few days is more usual.

“To have a Queen’s speech it is technically necessary to prorogue, so we will have to find out a way of doing that that we think is in conformity with the judgment and we think there probably is,” Johnson said on Tuesday in an LBC radio interview. “We will have a Queen’s Speech.”

PM Hints U.K. Could Be Difficult If ‘Corralled’ (8:30 a.m.)

Boris Johnson suggested Britain might not be a constructive member of the EU if it is trapped in the bloc with another extension to the Brexit deadline. His comment represents a break from his predecessor, Theresa May, who had insisted the U.K. would be a responsible partner.

It would be “a mistake to keep the U.K. bound in beyond the time people want,” he said. “It’s a matter of common observation that the U.K. wants to come out,” Johnson told BBC radio. “I don’t think any purpose is served in corralling the U.K. inside the EU”.

Johnson Sees ‘Questions’ About Rebel Law Origins (8:25 a.m.)

The prime minister said he had “questions” over origins of a law drafted by rebel Conservatives and opposition parties that now compels him to seek a delay to Brexit if he hasn’t got a deal by Oct. 19.

Asked about Sunday newspaper stories that his office suggested there was “foreign collusion” in the drafting process, Johnson didn’t knock the idea down — though he said “those aren’t my words.”

“There is a legitimate question to be asked about the generation of this SO24 legislation,” Johnson told BBC radio on Tuesday, referring to the clause in the Parliamentary rulebook that allowed the legislation to be debated. “We have no knowledge of how it was produced. It was not subject to normal parliamentary scrutiny.”

Irish Government Rebuffs U.K. Ideas (8:25 a.m.)

Ireland’s Europe Minister Helen McEntee said in a Newstalk radio interview that the idea of customs posts close to the Irish border is “clearly not acceptable.” Such checkpoints would disrupt the all-Ireland economy and have already been dismissed by the EU, she said.

While she pointed out these are not the U.K.’s final proposals, she said if they formed the basis of Johnson’s plan, it brings no-deal closer. As yet, the U.K. has brought forward “no credible” proposals to solve the Irish border impasse.

Johnson Denies Plan for String of Checkpoints (8:15 a.m.)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied reports his government is proposing a string of border posts away from the crossing between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

“That’s not what we’re proposing at all,” Johnson told BBC radio. “There are very good reasons why that would not be a good idea and I think everybody who is familiar with the situation in Northern Ireland wouldn’t want both for practical and for reasons of sentiment that we totally, totally understand.”

In the end, the U.K. “must have a single customs territory,” Johnson said. “But there are plenty of ways we can facilitate north-south trade.”

Johnson Declines to Give Details on His New Deal (7:50 a.m.)

Boris Johnson said the U.K. has a new plan, and he sees a way forward in talks, but he wouldn’t go into details in an interview with the BBC.

He said it’s crucial for the U.K. not to be trapped in EU customs rules after Brexit, and he will “abolish” the backstop. Any deal will prevent a hard border and respect the Good Friday Agreement, he said.

“What we want to do is get rid of the backstop and that’s the most important thing,” Johnson said. “We also want changes to the political declaration which sets out the future shape of relationships between the U.K. and EU.”

Coveney Says Proposals So Far Are Non-Starter (Earlier)

Coveney said the U.K. ideas on managing the border that were proposed in an earlier document were a “non-starter.” He was commenting after Irish broadcaster RTE reported late Monday that U.K. has proposed customs checks five to 10 miles away from the Irish border.

Earlier:

U.K.’s Johnson Confronts Moment of Truth for Brexit StrategyBrexit-Backing Hedge Fund Boss Odey Rejects Conflict ClaimsWhy Ireland’s Border Is Brexit’s Intractable Puzzle: QuickTakeBoris Johnson’s Teflon Gets a Full Sleaze Test: Therese Raphael

–With assistance from Stuart Biggs, Alex Morales and Ian Wishart.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at [email protected];Dara Doyle in Dublin at [email protected];Tim Ross in Manchester, England at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at [email protected], Emma Ross-Thomas

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