UK can prosper mightily: Boris

LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that Britain “can prosper mightily” without a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union, the day after agreeing to extend stalled talks with Brussels.

Johnson, who accepted prolonging negotiations in a video-call on Saturday with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, told the BBC he believed a deal is “there to be done” before Britain leaves the bloc’s regulatory regime in 2021.

But he cautioned the EU needed to understand that his government is “utterly serious about needing to control our own laws and our own regulations”, including its fisheries policy. Britain formally left the bloc in January but remains bound by most of its rules until the end of the year under the terms of its Brexit divorce.

The current 11-month transition phase was intended to allow the two sides to agree their future trading relationship after nearly five decades of economic and political integration. However, nine scheduled rounds of negotiations ended Friday with both parties saying significant obstacles to an agreement remain, prompting Johnson and von der Leyen´s intervention.