UK ‘can prosper mightily’ under no-deal Brexit: PM
LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday 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.
LONDON: In a handout picture released by the BBC shows Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson gesturing as he appears on the BBC political program The Andrew Marr Show in London yesterday.-AFP
Johnson, who accepted prolonging negotiations in a video-call 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.
Entrenched positions
London and Brussels had pinpointed a European summit on October 15 as the latest an agreement could be reached for it to be ratified in time to take effect by 2021. Reports suggest the talks could now continue for the rest of October, but British officials are stressing the need for clarity on whether a deal is feasible by the summit.
Neither side appears ready to make a big shift in their entrenched positions. Johnson-a key figure in the lengthy and divisive process to take Britain out of the bloc-said Sunday he hoped the EU would “agree to the deal that we’ve set out”. Following his call with von der Leyen, an EU source told AFP the bloc was waiting for London “to really start negotiating on the big issues”.
