Johnson ‘confident’ EU will shift position on Brexit deal

LONDON: Boris Johnson believes Brussels will blink first in the Brexit stand-off but acknowledged there would be “bumps along the road”.

The Prime Minister has rejected demands for the recall of Parliament following warnings that a no-deal Brexit would cause “incredibly serious” economic harm. He will use face-to-face talks with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron later this week to spell out his commitment to leave the European Union with or without a deal on October 31.

He acknowledged there was “reluctance” in Europe about his demands for the backstop - the plan to prevent a hard border with Ireland in all circumstances - to be scrapped. “There may well be bumps in the road but we will be ready to come out on October 31 deal or no deal,” Johnson said during a visit to Truro.

“Now of course our friends and partners on the other side of the Channel are showing a little bit of reluctance at the moment to change their position. That’s fine — I’m confident that they will - but in the meantime we have to get ready for a no-deal outcome. I want a deal. We’re ready to work with our friends and partners to get a deal but if you want a good deal for the UK, you must simultaneously get ready to come out without one.”

Fresh concerns have been raised about the prospect of a no-deal Brexit following the leak of a confidential Whitehall dossier on the Operation Yellowhammer contingency plans. The leader of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said it was impossible for firms to be fully prepared for the disruption that would occur following the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal.

And shadow chancellor John McDonnell threw his weight behind demands for Johnson to cut short Parliament’s summer recess to face MPs at Westminster. But Downing Street rejected the demands, saying MPs had voted for the recess dates which will see Parliament return on September 3. Michael Gove, the government minister in charge of no-deal planning, is expected to update MPs on developments when the Commons resumes sitting.

The leaked Operation Yellowhammer papers warned that Britain will be hit with a three-month “meltdown” at its ports, a hard Irish border and shortages of food and medicine if the UK leaves without an agreement.

Downing Street said the leaked dossier was “out of date” and “we are making all necessary preparations ahead of October 31”. A spokeswoman said: “In recent weeks we have significantly stepped up our preparations for leaving the EU across a whole range of areas.”

A “large-scale public information campaign” is expected to begin shortly, Downing Street said, with TV, radio, print and social media advertising.Concerned citizens are likely to be directed to the gov.uk website for more information, with upgrades put in place to cope with an expected surge in online traffic.

Johnson will meet German Chancellor Merkel on Wednesday and French President Macron on Thursday ahead of his first global summit — the G7 gathering in Biarritz on Saturday.“He has been clear that there cannot be any actual negotiations unless the backstop goes and that’s the message he has delivered to leaders in his phone conversations and he will do that face-to-face,” the Downing Street spokeswoman said.