https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/09/boris-johnson-no-pm-could-accept-trade-terms-offered-by-euBoris Johnson: no PM could accept trade terms offered by EU
Johnson defends UK negotiating stance as he prepares to fly to Brussels for last-ditch Brexit talks
Wed 9 Dec 2020 13.01 GMT
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Spoiler
Boris Johnson claimed no prime minister would be right to accept the trade terms being offered by the EU, as he prepared to fly to Brussels for last-ditch talks.
Asked in the Commons by the veteran Tory backbencher Edward Leigh about the prospects for a deal, Johnson said: “Our friends in the EU are currently insisting that if they pass a new law in future with which we in this country do not comply or don’t follow suit, then they want the automatic right to punish us and to retaliate.
“And secondly they’re saying the UK should be the only country in the world not to have sovereign control over its fishing waters. I don’t believe that those are terms that any prime minister of this country should accept.”
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Johnson was appearing at prime minister’s questions before travelling to Brussels for talks over dinner with the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
The prime minister’s spokeswoman, Allegra Stratton, said the dinner, which would begin after a short meeting at 7pm, would not be a negotiation. “It’s a dinner, a conversation between two political leaders,” she said. “The prime minister is going to be clear this evening that he can’t accept anything that undermines our ability to control our laws, or to control our waters. He’s going to put that clearly to Ursula von der Leyen to see what her response is.”
In the Commons, challenged by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, about the risks of a no-deal exit from the transition period on 1 January, Johnson claimed the UK would be “a magnet for overseas investment”, whatever the outcome.
“There will be jobs created in this country, throughout the whole of the UK, not just in spite of Brexit but because of Brexit,” he said. “Indeed, this country is going to become a magnet for overseas investment. Indeed it already is, and will remain so.”
He said the UK would prosper whether the outcome of the negotiations was “a Canada solution or an Australian solution”. The Australian solution is Johnson’s shorthand for a no-deal exit from the transition period on 1 January, under which the EU would impose tariffs on British goods.
Starmer accused the prime minister of failing to secure the “oven-ready” Brexit deal he had boasted of during last year’s general election campaign. But Johnson said that had referred to the withdrawal agreement, which allowed the UK to leave the EU on 31 January this year.
“We had an oven-ready deal, which was the withdrawal agreement, by which this country left the customs union, left the single market and delivered on our promises,” he said.
He added that the UK would be able to implement a new immigration regime now, raise animal welfare standards, and strike new trade deals with other countries.
The prime minister also attacked Starmer, who was appearing via video link while self isolating, about Labour’s failure to say whether it would vote for a Brexit deal, accusing him of being “sphinx-like” about the issue.
Starmer said no decision would be made until there was a deal to scrutinise, and he added: “My party will vote in the national interest.”
He pointed to forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility which suggested, he said, that the cost of leaving the EU with no deal would be higher unemployment, higher inflation and a smaller economy.
Boris Johnson sets himself up for a disastrous dinner date
John Crace
Wed 9 Dec 2020 18.01 GMT
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Spoiler
One sometimes wonders whether Boris Johnson is aware you can watch British television in Europe. For either the prime minister was setting himself up for one of the biggest climbdowns – even by his own standards – in modern political history or his dinner on Wednesday night with the EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is going to be one of the shortest on record. With awkward silences at that, as the EU appears in no mood to budge. Maybe Von der Leyen should rethink the menu and just go for chicken nuggets and chips so Boris can get an earlier flight home. Because at this rate a no-deal Brexit is looking a certainty.
The tone had been set right at the start of prime minister’s questions with Johnson’s reply to the Tory backbencher and longtime Brexiter Edward Leigh on the chances of a trade deal agreement. Boris didn’t even attempt to moderate his language. Not a word about how far both sides had come in the negotiation, just straight for the jugular about how the EU was trying to punish the UK and that if we didn’t get what we wanted on fishing rights, sovereignty and level playing fields then it could get stuffed. “We will prosper mightily” if we leave without a deal, he said. Leigh looked beside himself with pleasure. A further 2% fall in GDP was what he had always wanted. The orgasm that would make the four years of tantric Sexit that had preceded it worthwhile.
Brexit was also on Keir Starmer’s mind, as the Labour leader ran through some of Johnson’s previous convictions. The oven-ready deal that was anything but. His promise that the chances of a no-deal Brexit were zero. His September declaration that leaving without a deal would be a failure of statecraft. Was there anything else he had forgotten that Boris wanted to add to the charge sheet?
Johnson merely grinned inanely, tugged his hair and began ad-libbing. It was good to hear Starmer talking from Islington, “his spiritual home”, where he was self-isolating. Keir corrected him: it was actually Camden. Though he could have pointed out that Islington had been Boris’s home up until a year ago when he had finally been kicked out after one affair too many.
Having cleared that up, Boris rehashed the nonsense of “oven ready” only applying to the withdrawal agreement, before repeating “prosper mightily”. His phrase of the day. Along with “delphic”. Time and again he accused Starmer of delphic silences over Brexit. Again Starmer slightly missed a trick, as what we have had from Johnson is delphic white noise. Loads of words spilled out in no particular order and all equally meaningless.
Perhaps the height of mindlessness was Johnson’s observation that Labour had yet to say whether it would support a deal. It seemed to have escaped Boris that the whole reason the negotiations were still continuing was that there was no deal to support. Still Starmer came as close as he ever has to saying he would back any crap deal over none. Not least because the Conservatives might need the opposition votes if the hardline Brexiters cried “betrayal” and chose to rebel against the government. Then Johnson’s days really would be numbered.
Next up was Michael Gove to explain how the government would now be signing up to the Northern Ireland protocols, which it had negotiated and signed up to in the withdrawal agreement less than a year ago. This being the Govester – Westminster’s ultimate shapeshifter and a far more accomplished liar than Boris will ever be – he managed to make this sound like a major triumph of diplomacy on his part, rather than a decision not to violate international law. A negotiation in which he had both managed to hoodwink the EU into not building a mini-embassy in Northern Ireland and restricting them instead to having 15 observers dotted around the country telling UK customs officials what to do, and securing grace periods of up to six months for some goods to maintain supply lines and ensure no one starved to death.
It’s a tough gig following Gove because the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster manages to mix so many untruths and half-truths, along with a few connecting sentences that may be factually correct, that it’s hard to know where to begin. With the truths that may mean nothing or the lies that conceal the reality. Labour’s Rachel Reeves chose to hedge her bets and not get stuck into a semantic battle in which there would be no winners. Rather she tried to stick to the known knowns. That a three-month period of grace wasn’t that long, and how many UK customs agents he had managed to recruit.
Inevitably, the Govester avoided answering those questions, though he did confirm to Bernard Jenkin that under the new regime parts of Northern Ireland would still be covered by EU “acquis” and subject to the jurisdiction of the European court of justice. Yet somehow he managed to convince Jenkin – along with Richard Drax, who asked a similar question – that this was a victory for the UK and not a concession we had agreed to a year back, as they both sat down looking reasonably satisfied with the answer. Had it been anyone but Gove, they would have been spitting blood.
Gove’s ability for mendacity reached its zenith in response to a question from Labour’s Ben Bradshaw. When he had said UK citizens could still be able to take part in the Erasmus scheme, he had meant that those students currently on the course wouldn’t be thrown off it. And when he had said British citizens would still qualify for EU healthcare, he had only been talking about those still living in the EU. One wonders what lies the Govester has to tell himself to allow him to sleep at night.
Still, at least Gove had finally got round to agreeing that the UK would be doing what it had already said it would. The more pressing question was whether Johnson would do what is best for the country or what is best for his position in the Tory party. We’ll need an answer to that one in a matter of days.
Und jetzt (wozu auch immer):
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/09/boris-johnson-and-eu-agree-to-extend-brexit-talks-for-another-72-hoursBoris Johnson and EU agree to extend Brexit talks until Sunday
Significant gaps remain between PM and EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen after Brussels dinner
Wed 9 Dec 2020 22.28 GMT
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Spoiler
The UK and EU must do a deal within 72 hours or prepare for no deal, No 10 has said after the conclusion of a three-hour dinner summit between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen.
After the meeting, “significant” gaps were said to remain between the prime minister and European commission president. They agreed that negotiations could go on but had to come to a resolution within 72 hours.
Downing Street said the conversation had been “frank” - a diplomatic expression for a heated conversation between leaders.
A senior No 10 source said: ‘The prime minister and Von der Leyen had a frank discussion about the significant obstacles which remain in the negotiations.
“Very large gaps remain between the two sides and it is still unclear whether these can be bridged. The prime minister and Von der Leyen agreed to further discussions over the next few days between their negotiating teams.
“The prime minister does not want to leave any route to a possible deal untested. The prime minister and Von der Leyen agreed that by Sunday a firm decision should be taken about the future of the talks.”
Flanked by his chief negotiator and senior aides, Johnson told the European commission president and the bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, that he could not accept terms in a treaty that would tie Britain to EU rules.
As he spelled out his position over a three-course meal in the commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, EU sources said the bloc planned to publish its no-deal contingency plans “very soon indeed” in order to keep planes flying and protect borders in the event of talks collapsing irretrievably.
It came after EU leaders told their parliaments the negotiations were on the edge of failure. “At the moment we are on the precipice of a no-deal [Brexit],” Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, told the Irish parliament earlier in the day.
Johnson had arrived at the commission’s headquarters just after 8pm local time, where he posed for pictures with Von der Leyen before retreating to a meeting room with their chief negotiators for a half-hour discussion. The two teams, joined by further officials, then sat down to a fish dinner.
As Von der Leyen and Johnson met, the commission president warned him over the need to remain Covid-secure, telling him: “Keep [your] distance.”
She added that the prime minister should remove his mask. “Then we have to put it back on,” she said. “You have to put it back on immediately.”
“You run a tight ship here, Ursula, and quite right too,” Johnson responded.
The 27 EU heads of state and government will meet on Thursday, when Von der Leyen is likely to update them on the talks.
Sources said the leaders would not engage in a debate and did not intend to make any decisions on Brexit during the two-day summit. Talks are expected to resume on Thursday morning.
EU capitals said they were looking for positive signs following the meal amid growing fears of an economic and security disaster when the Brexit transition period ends in three weeks’ time.
In the Bundestag, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had said earlier in the day that her government was willing to let the negotiation collapse if Downing Street continued to reject the EU’s approach.
“If there are conditions coming from the British side which we cannot accept, then we will go on our own way without an exit agreement,” she said. “Because one thing is certain: the integrity of the single market has to be maintained.”
The main hurdle is seen by both sides as the EU’s demand for an “evolution” or “ratchet” clause to ensure that as one side upgrades its standards, the other is not able to enjoy a competitive advantage.
Before flying to Brussels from RAF Northolt, Johnson told the Commons that the EU had tabled terms no British prime minister could accept. “Our friends in the EU are currently insisting that if they pass a new law in future with which we in this country do not comply or don’t follow suit, then they want the automatic right to punish us and to retaliate,” he said.
“And secondly, they’re saying the UK should be the only country in the world not to have sovereign control over its fishing waters. I don’t believe that those are terms that any prime minister of this country should accept.”
The description of the EU’s negotiating demands was rejected in Brussels, raising hopes that Johnson was establishing a “straw man” argument to blow away in favour of a compromise that he can sell to his Brexiter backbenchers. “I don’t recognise that, it doesn’t ring a bell,” said one senior EU diplomat. “I don’t know what he is referring to, let’s put it that way.”
Merkel told German parliamentarians that the EU, with the “evolution” clause, was merely seeking to manage the inevitable divergence in environmental, social and labour standards, which are currently shared.
She said: “We currently more or less have the same legal system, a harmonised legal system, but over the years the legal systems will diverge regarding environment law, labour law, health legislation, everywhere.
“For this we need to find agreements about how each side can react when the other changes their legal situation. Otherwise there will be unfair competition conditions, which we can’t do to our companies. This is the big, difficult issue which is still on the table, next to questions about fishing quotas and similar things.”
The UK’s chief negotiator, David Frost, has agreed to non-regression from a common baseline of standards at the end of the transition period.
But EU negotiators want a forum for discussion when the current minimum standards become outdated owing to developments on one side. There would then be arbitration and the potential for one side to hit back with tariffs or other corrective measures if the other drags its feet on agreeing a new “level playing field” of minimum standards. Downing Street fears this will mean an alignment of standards via the back door.
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