Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Moment of Truth: UK Set to Submit Brexit Deal Proposals
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
October 1, 2019

Share

MANCHESTER, England — After months of Brexit stalemate, Britain is finally about to play its hand, setting out Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposals for a last-minute divorce deal with the European Union.
It’s a crucial moment for the embattled leader, who is faced with a skeptical EU, a divided U.K. and a supportive but worried Conservative Party.
The party that chose Johnson as its leader in July is mostly — but not unanimously — rallying behind a politician whose drive and energy have been stained by allegations of improper behavior and divisive political tactics.
Johnson confirmed Tuesday that the government will send formal Brexit proposals to Brussels within days, saying “this is the moment when the rubber hits the road.”
Britain is due to leave the 28-nation bloc in just 30 days, and EU leaders are impatient with the U.K.’s failure to set out detailed plans for maintaining an open border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland — the key sticking point to a deal.
Johnson said details would be disclosed “very soon.” The U.K. plans to send them to Brussels within days after the governing Conservative Party conference ends Wednesday in Manchester, northwest England.
Johnson says Britain will leave the EU on the scheduled Oct. 31 date with or without a deal. A Brexit agreement between the EU and his predecessor, Theresa May, was rejected three times by the U.K. Parliament, largely because of opposition to the “backstop,” an insurance policy designed to ensure there is no return to customs posts or other infrastructure on the Irish border.

Still Falling Short of Seamless Border That Exists Today

An open border underpins both the local economy and Northern Ireland’s peace process. But British Brexit supporters oppose the backstop because it would keep the U.K. tightly bound to EU trade rules in order to avoid customs checks — limiting the country’s ability to strike new trade deals around the world.

“People here don’t want a customs border between north and south and no British government should seek to impose customs posts against the will of the people on the island of Ireland.” — Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar
So far, the U.K. has floated the idea of a common area for livestock and agricultural products, plus largely untested “technological solutions” as a replacement for the backstop. The EU says that is inadequate. Ireland has already rejected an idea raised in preliminary U.K. proposals for customs posts five to 10 miles away from the border.
Johnson said that proposal wasn’t going to be included, but added that it was a “reality” that some checks would be needed to create a “single customs territory” for the U.K.
He said checks could be conducted away from the border, possibly at either end of a shipment’s journey.
“That I don’t think will be onerous, it certainly wouldn’t involve infrastructure,” he told Sky News.
That still falls short of the seamless border that exists today. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that under May, the U.K. government “promised no hard border or associated controls or checks and we expect the British government to honor that promise.”
“People here don’t want a customs border between north and south and no British government should seek to impose customs posts against the will of the people on the island of Ireland,” he said in the Irish parliament.
Photo of delegates arriving at the Conservative Party Conference
Delegates arrive in heavy rain at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday that his government prepared at last to make firm proposals for a new divorce deal with the European Union. Britain is due to leave the 28-nation bloc at the end of this month, and EU leaders are growing impatient with the U.K.’s failure to set out detailed plans for maintaining an open border between Northern Ireland and Ireland — the key sticking point to a deal. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Johnson Attempting to Energize His Party

Johnson insists he wants to strike a deal with the EU to replace May’s rejected Brexit agreement. He also says the U.K. can handle any bumps that come from tumbling out of the bloc without a deal, which would mean the instant imposition of customs checks and other barriers between Britain and the EU, its biggest trading partner.
But the U.K. government and businesses say the disruptions would be substantial.
Trade Minister George Freeman told delegates at the Conservative conference that “if we leave without a deal, it’s going to be very bumpy.” He said the flow of trade across the Channel between the English port of Dover and the French port of Calais — the U.K.’s most important trade route — could be cut in half as customs and vehicle checks were introduced.
At the annual conference, Johnson is attempting to energize his party with all the bold policies he says the government will deliver once the U.K. manages to “Get Brexit Done” — from more money for police, roads and housing to a big hike in the minimum wage. Tuesday’s big theme, law and order, was slightly undermined when a Conservative lawmaker was ejected from the conference over an altercation that saw police swoop on a convention center lounge.
The costly policy promises, which break with a decade of deficit-slashing austerity by Johnson’s Conservative predecessors, are also designed to appeal to voters in a national election that looks likely to be called within weeks.
But he is dogged by allegations that he handed out perks to a female friend’s business while he was mayor of London and groped the thigh of a female journalist at a lunch two decades ago. Johnson denies impropriety in both cases — though said Tuesday that he couldn’t remember the lunch in question.

Johnson Has to Convince the Wider Voting Public

He also suggested the allegations against him might motivated by political opponents trying “to knock the government off course.”
Johnson is popular with many Conservative members, who welcome his energy and optimism after three years of Brexit gridlock under May. Some, though, have qualms about his personal conduct and his divisive tactics, which include using words like “surrender” and “betrayal” about opponents of Brexit.

“We are no longer the party of Churchill. We are more the party of Trump.” — David Gauke, a former Cabinet minister kicked out of the party group in Parliament
David Gauke — a former Cabinet minister kicked out of the party group in Parliament for voting against the government over Brexit — said he feared that under Johnson, the Tories were becoming “a much more aggressive, much more confrontational, much more divisive party.”
“We are no longer the party of Churchill. We are more the party of Trump,” he said.
But many conference delegates were supportive. Seena Shah, 30, who has been chosen as a Conservative election candidate in London, said she was pro-Brexit, socially liberal and comfortable with Johnson as leader.
“Boris, when he walks into a room, it fills with energy,” she said. “He is a fantastic leader. We need somebody who is going to keep the optimism up, and he is doing that very well.”
Now Johnson just has to convince the wider voting public that despite tensions over Brexit, he can be a unifying figure.
“The old generous-hearted, loving mayor of London — that person has not gone away,” Johnson told the BBC. “But we are in a position where the only way we can take this country forward and unite our country again is to get Brexit done.”
[activecampaign form=29]

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

DON'T MISS

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

DON'T MISS

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

DON'T MISS

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

DON'T MISS

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

DON'T MISS

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

DON'T MISS

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

DON'T MISS

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

DON'T MISS

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

UP NEXT

Putin Says Russia Has Tested a New Intermediate Range Missile in a Strike on Ukraine

UP NEXT

What Will Happen to CNBC and MSNBC When They No Longer Have a Corporate Connection to NBC News?

UP NEXT

Pope to Make Late Italian Teenager Carlo Acutis the First Millennial Saint on April 27

UP NEXT

US Vetoes UN Ceasefire Resolution in Gaza Conflict

UP NEXT

Israeli Officials Demand the Right to Strike Hezbollah Under Any Cease-Fire Deal for Lebanon

UP NEXT

Spain Will Legalize Hundreds of Thousands of Undocumented Migrants in the Next 3 Years

UP NEXT

TSMC Walks a Geopolitical Tightrope

UP NEXT

Volunteers Came Back to Nonprofits in 2023, After the Pandemic Tanked Participation

UP NEXT

New Study: Proposed Trump Tariffs Could Cost US Consumers $78 Billion a Year

UP NEXT

Iran Defies International Pressure, Increasing Its Stockpile of Near Weapons-Grade Uranium, UN Says

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

4 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

4 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

4 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

5 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

5 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

5 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

5 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

6 hours ago

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

6 hours ago

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

6 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

NEW YORK — Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, was chosen Thursday by Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general hours after...

2 hours ago

2 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

3 hours ago

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

3 hours ago

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

4 hours ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

President Joe Biden with Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to erase the Biden administration’s tailpipe rules designed to get carmakers to produce electric vehicles, but most U.S. automakers want to keep them. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
4 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

4 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

5 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP/Alex Brandon)
5 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend