Boris Johnson news: Johnson repeatedly refuses to rule out suspending parliament to achieve no-deal Brexit
All the updates from the G7 summit in Biarritz, as it happened
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson today said he was prepared to take final Brexit talks down to the last minute, but would then leave without a deal on 31 October, if no deal had been brokered.
This leaves just 68 days for the prime minister to secure a new deal, with neither side currently prepared to compromise on key issues.
The scenario leaves the UK facing a messy exit from the bloc, with food shortages and considerable border disruption expected, which could leave long-lasting economic scars on the country.
“The EU does tend to come to an agreement right at the end,” he said. “Clearly for us the walking away, as it were, would come on 31 October when we would take steps to come out … we would have by then made absolutely colossal extensive and fantastic preparations.”
Mr Johnson said he believed that other EU states, as well as the British public, now wanted to put Brexit behind them and move on.
“I think that it’s the job of everybody in parliament to get this thing done,” he said. “I think it’s what the people want, I also think by the way it’s what our friends and partners on the other side of the Channel want.
“They want this thing done, they want it over.
“You talk to our friends as I have done in the last few weeks and they are very enthusiastic about getting on with the future. They regard Brexit now as an encumbrance, an old argument. They want to talk about the new partnership that we’re going to build.”
The prime minister repeatedly refused to rule out suspending parliament in order to push through a no-deal Brexit.
After the meeting between Boris Johnson and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The two leaders agreed on the strength of the bilateral relationship and committed to developing a modern, strategic partnership between our countries.
“They expressed their shared desire to strengthen economic, trade and security co-operation between the UK and Egypt.”
Labour has called for a ban on the importation of hunting trophies of threatened species.
Shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman said it is “cruel and indefensible” for a “few wealthy hunters” to bring such items into the UK.
Hayman said it was wrong for hunters to import horns, antlers, hides or heads and display them as trophies. She said: “Shooting and importing animals so that their heads, antlers and skins can adorn the trophy rooms of a few wealthy hunters is cruel and indefensible.
“The trade is exacerbating the decline of threatened species and brings unnecessary suffering to animals.
“Labour is the party that introduced the Hunting Act and by working with the general public, conservation charities and animal rights organisations on our animal welfare manifesto, we will be the party to end the import of trophy animals.”
Boris Johnson indicated he would like to make an official visit to Japan as he met the country’s prime minister Shinzo Abe at the G7.
At the start of talks with Abe, the prime minister said: “As soon as we’ve got Brexit done, which will be on October 31, as I never tire of telling people in the UK, I want to make sure that we come to Japan.
“If that would be something you would welcome.”
Boris Johnson has been warned by senior figures in Brussels that failing to pay the £39bn divorce bill would damage relations between the UK and the European Union and jeopardise future trade talks.
The PM has said that if there is a no-deal Brexit “the £39 billion is no longer legally pledged” to the EU.
But officials in Brussels said the UK must honour commitments made during its EU membership and pointedly said that “settling accounts is essential to starting off a new relationship on the right foot”.
European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said: “All commitments that were taken by the 28 member states should be honoured and this is also and especially true in a no-deal scenario where the UK would be expected to continue to honour all commitments made during EU membership.
“Rather than going now into a judicial action threat, I think it is important to make clear that settling accounts is essential to starting off a new relationship on the right foot based on mutual trust.
“I would also say that as far as I understand this issue has not been raised with the EU side, for the time being, officially.”
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, said: “If the UK doesn’t pay what is due, the EU will not negotiate a trade deal.
“After a ‘no deal’, this will be a first condition of any talks. Britain is better than this.”
Johnson claimed on Sunday that there would be “very substantial sums” available from the £39bn to spend on domestic priorities if there was a no-deal Brexit.
No 10 has again warned MPs not to attempt to block a no-deal Brexit parliament.
“The prime minister has been very clear to European leaders that he’s seen in the last week that the idea that Brexit can be stopped is incorrect, and we are leaving on 31 October,” said a senior government official at the G7.
“He thinks that EU leaders should not be listening to the very wrong messages emerging from some parliamentarians who think that they will stop Brexit.”
“The prime minister has been repeatedly clear that parliamentarians and politicians don’t get to choose which public votes they respect.”
Nicola Sturgeon has accused “reckless” Boris Johnson is “making up” his Brexit policy as he goes along.
Scotland’s first minister hit out at the PM after he conceded that reaching an agreement for the UK to leave the EU by 31 October 31 was now “touch and go”.
With Holyrood set to pass a motion making clear that the UK “should in no circumstances leave the EU on a no-deal basis” next week, Sturgeon has claimed he is “behaving in a kind of carefree, shrug of the shoulders, reckless manner”.
The first minister said: “He’s gone in the matter of a few weeks from saying that a no-deal Brexit in his view was a million to one chance, to now saying it's touch and go which suggest to me he's making it up as he goes along.
“That’s not acceptable because the consequences of this are so serious for our economy, for our society, for the livelihoods and living standards of people the length and breadth of the UK that that's just not good enough.”
She added: “The House of Commons returns to session next week and the SNP MPs will be working hard with other parties to find whatever way we can of stopping no deal in its tracks because that would be catastrophic.”
Following the meeting between Boris Johnson and Shinzo Abe, a Downing Street spokesman said: “Both leaders agreed on the importance of the UK-Japan relationship and the need to further strengthen this, particularly in the area of security cooperation.
“They confirmed their commitment to free trade and shared values.
“The prime minister and prime minister Abe committed to pursuing an ambitious free trade agreement, building on the existing EU-Japan economic partnership agreement.”
Boris Johnson and Shinzo Abe at the G7 (Reuters)
Boris Johnson went swimming in the Atlantic again on Monday morning before his meeting with Australian counterpart Scott Morrison.
On Sunday he swam round a rocky outcrop close to his waterfront hotel in the French resort, drawing a Brexit lesson for the EU from the experience by saying: “My point to the EU is that there is a way through, but you can’t find the way through if you just sit on the beach.”
Although Johnson made it round the rock on Sunday, his companion Ed Llewellyn did not. Apparently they both managed it today.
“Johnson is a straightforward narcissist. He has delivered a crisis for himself to solve … The needless man of the pointless hour.”
So says our sketch writer Tom Peck. Read his latest piece here.
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