Boris Johnson news live: No-deal Brexit looms as Gove claims EU is ‘refusing to negotiate’ with UK and Brussels rejects No 10’s tactics

The former Brexit secretary David Davies has claimed EU officials still think Boris Johnson is bluffing about his pledge to pull the UK out without a deal on 31 October.

“Quite a number of them think that we won't leave without a deal, that we are not prepared to do it,” the Tory MP told talkRADIO.

“Many people in Germany and presumably elsewhere in the EU believe Britain won't accept a hard deal, a hard Brexit, and that therefore there is no reason to offer any improvements to the deal.”

He continued: “Once that realisation is gone, once people realise we are serious about this and we’re going to leave whatever on the 31st, I think there will be a lot more willingness in Brussels to offer a deal.”

Davies also claimed we are “perfectly well prepared” for a no-deal exit.

Better get used to these. Boris Johnson sits for his official photograph with Estonian prime minister Juri Ratas at No 10. Their talks will focus on shared defence and security concerns in the Baltic state, where UK troops are currently based as part of a Nato operation to deter Russian aggression.

Juri Ratas and Boris Johnson meet for talks (AFP) 

Despite all of today’s rancour, the European Commission has confirmed that president Jean-Claude Juncker has told Boris Johnson his team are available for talks by phone or in person for the UK to “clarify” its position over the coming weeks.

But Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said the EU would not reopen the withdrawal agreement reached with Theresa May in November - something which the PM has made a red line.

Here’s our political editor Andrew Woodcock with all the latest.

More than 70 MPs and peers have backed a legal challenge to stop Boris Johnson forcing through a no-deal Brexit by suspending Parliament.

The crowdfunded challenge is being led by the Good Law Project, the same team that won a victory at the European Court of Justice last year over whether the UK could unilaterally cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50.

Shutting down Parliament - known as proroguing - to prevent MPs being able to vote against leaving the EU without a deal is “unlawful and unconstitutional”, according to the challenge backed by the cross-party group of politicians.

The prime minister has threatened to take the UK out of the EU with or without a deal by October 31.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said the UK is at an “important historic crossroads” and the country wants to take its friendship with Canada to the “next level” on trade and other matters.

After reiterating the government’s desire to leave the EU on 31 October - deal or no deal - Mr Raab told reporters in Toronto: “With that in mind we need to ensure everything possible is in place to provide continuity of trade after Brexit, for the benefit of companies and consumers in both our countries and indeed wider countries around the world.”

Mr Raab added that he and Canadian foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland had agreed on the need for a “seamless transition”.

“For the UK, Brexit is not just about risk management - although that's important, and I wouldn't want to be glib or not take that very seriously - but it’s also, and I think our prime minister has been very clear about that, about grasping the enormous opportunities of our new found freedoms,” he said.

“Yes, we’re going to remain and we hope to be good European neighbours, partners and friends in the future but we do want to grasp those global opportunities and we want to expand our horizons and raise our level of ambitions in the world.

“As part of that we want to take our friendship with Canada and the Canadian people to the next level on trade, on security cooperation, on human rights and on those global challenges which are beyond any particular region - tackling climate change.”

Michael Gove almost managed to keep a straight face, as he became the latest person forced to lie for Boris Johnson, writes political sketch writer Tom Peck.

Read more here:

Tom Peck: Gove struggles to keep a straight face while lying for Boris Johnson

Labour has written to Treasury minister Rishi Sunak demanding further details on how the extra £2.1 billion of funding to prepare for a no-deal Brexit will be spent.

Shadow Treasury minister Peter Dowd said: “Rather than continuing with smoke and mirrors, it is high time that the Chief Secretary came clean to taxpayers about the true cost of a Tory no-deal Brexit and preparedness of HMRC and the UK Border Force.”

Treasury minister Rishi Sunak (Reuters/Hannah McKay) 

The relationship between the UK and Ireland would “fundamentally change” in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe.

Mr Donohoe was speaking at the Irish Embassy in London after a meeting with chancellor Sajid Javid about the UK government’s plans for exiting the EU.

He said: “If the United Kingdom became a third country it would have a fundamental effect on the nature of the economic relationship between the United Kingdom and Ireland because obviously they would be outside the single market, they would be outside the customs unions and they would be treated like other countries that are outside of the European Union from a trading point of view.

“Were that to happen - which it would in the event of a no-deal Brexit - it would fundamentally change the relationship that is there.”

Chancellor Sajid Javid (left) meets with Ireland's finance minister Paschal Donohoe at Downing Street (Reuters/Peter Nicholls) 

Mr Donohoe added: “The chancellor affirmed what prime minister [Boris] Johnson had said in relation to the Withdrawal Agreement and in relation to the view that the backstop cannot form part of that Withdrawal Agreement.

"I also had, therefore, to explain to why I believe the ratification of the backstop was the best possible guarantee to ensuring that we do not have a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.”

The finance minister said he believed “the prospect of a no-deal Brexit is growing” and that the “consequences of that are well understood by us in Ireland”.

Threats and abuse are forcing MPs out of public life, deputy speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has warned.

Sir Lindsay, who chairs a parliamentary security panel, said MPs were telling him they could no longer stand for re-election as their family had to come first.

His comments came as the BBC released details of a survey, in which 172 of the 650 MPs responded.

The broadcaster revealed more than 75 per cent said they had been threatened or abused, 108 said they had been in contact with police in the last 12 months and 20 reported receiving death threats.

Lindsay Hoyle, deputy speaker of the House of Commons (PA) 

Labour former minister David Lammy was among those MPs to read out abuse aimed at them, including: “You’re not English, you have to be white to be English.”

Sir Lindsay told the BBC: “We know that people feel intimidated to change their vote... but it’s the threat level that is beyond anything we’ve ever known before.

“And the fact is that when MPs turn round to me and say ‘Lindsay, I’m not going to stand again, I don’t feel safe, I don’t need this, my family has got to come first’ then we’re in danger of losing democracy in this country.”

PA