Boris Johnson news: UK to pull officials from EU meetings as Merkel rules out PM’s backstop demands

Diane Abbott also condemned the Home Office plan to end freedom of movement on the first day of a no-deal Brexit during her interview on the Today programme this morning.

Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly has claimed Boris Johnson was asking the EU to “look at reality” over Brexit and the backstop.

“Negotiations only work if people are willing to move and be adaptable and the UK has been willing to move and to be adaptable and what the prime minister is asking the EU to do is look at reality,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“The Withdrawal Agreement, because of the backstop, has been rejected by the House of Commons three times and it’s been very, very clear that that is the sticking point, but without that there is a good chance of getting a deal through the House and that’s what the prime minister has said he wants to do.”

He claimed “we want a deal … but if that’s not possible, the EU are unable or unwilling to make a concession like this then we are going to leave on 31 October”.

Cleverly also branded the leaked Yellowhammer information an “out-of-date document”.

“It is a series of worst-case scenarios to stimulate action in government and that action is being taken. We’ve ramped up our no-deal preparation to make sure that we avoid those worst-case scenarios that is why it is, by definition, an out-of-date document.”

Labour has suspended a regional board member after appearing to promote Holocaust denial.

Mollie Collins, who sits on the party’s executive board, shared an article on Facebook that suggested the Nazi murder of six million Jews was a “lie”.

Here’s Benjamin Kentish with all the details.

The independent MP Luciana Berger, who co-ordinated a letter calling for MPs’ recall to Parliament, branded Boris Johnson’s plans to drop the backstop “incredibly reckless”.

“It’s very clear that the prime minister is taking us down a path which is reckless,” the Liverpool Wavertree MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme

“Every day something else comes out and in fact the letter that you refer to was put together before the project Yellowhammer report was leaked and so there’s even more reason now that parliament should reconvene in order that we can hold the prime minister and his government to account on all the plans that they are pursuing which are incredibly reckless.”

Berger said there was no democratic mandate for a no-deal Brexit, adding: “We now have 72 days until Brexit and yet on the current timetable the House of Commons is due to sit for just less than 30 of that and I think the question that the country is asking is: why isn’t parliament in session now?”

Fancy working until you’re 75? Didn’t think so.

Proposals made by a Tory think tank to increase the state pension age to 70 by 2028 – and 75 by 2035 – have been branded “chilling and immoral” by former pensions minister Ros Altmann.

Chiara Giordano has more.

Boris Johnson has enough “goodwill” to take a “global lead” at the G7, according to former Tory leader William Hague.

As Johnson heads to Biarritz for his first summit of major world leaders, Hague said he has an opportunity to show a better face to the world than the image of a country torn apart by Brexit.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hague said the G7 nations were “desperately short” of ideas around which they could coalesce “to address the main threats that will overcome them unless they look far enough ahead”.

“A new British PM has the world's attention and the goodwill of America. This is a rare opportunity to present some clear ideas, to take a global lead, and in doing so show a better face of Britain,” he wrote.

Chair of the Irish Senate’s Brexit Committee Neale Richmond has branded Boris Johnson’s letter “disappointing”.

“This letter has nothing new in it, to be honest it’s a little bit disappointing, particularly in the tone in relation to referring to the backstop as anti-democratic and indeed saying that it poses a threat to the Good Friday Agreement, that’s very disappointing language from the prime minister.”

On a possible time limit, Richmond said: “That in turn would make it moot because you need the backstop there until and unless there is something better.

“No-one ever wants to see the backstop kick in, we’ve a very clear commitment that first priority is to negotiate a new relationship.

“After that we would of course look at alternative arrangements, but unfortunately no alternative arrangements have been proven, none have been shown and indeed this letter where the prime minister refers to it again doesn’t go into any detail where they might be, (there is) not an example in operation anywhere else in the world.”

Labour MP Tony Lloyd, shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland, has described Boris Johnson’s letter to Donald Tusk as a “fantasyland wish list”.

“Boris Johnson seems to have forgotten that he voted for Theresa May’s deal including the backstop,” he said.

“Whichever Brexit outcome he pursues, whether it’s a disastrous no deal or this fantasyland wish list, Boris Johnson clearly has no qualms about putting jobs, rights, prosperity or peace in Northern Ireland at risk.”

Tom Brake MP, the Lib Dems’ Brexit spokesperson, has also criticised the prime minister’s letter to the European Council president – describing it as “vague and deeply embarrassing”.