Boris Johnson news: Ireland government says it ‘cannot possibly’ accept PM's Brexit plan, as he faces fresh Jennifer Arcuri claims
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson’s government has said the EU must enter 10 days of “intensive discussions” by the weekend, as the PM seeks backing for his Brexit proposal. But European Parliament’s Brexit steering group and the Irish government labelled them unacceptable.
Jean-Claude Juncker spoke to Leo Varadkar about Mr Johnson's latest Brexit proposals on Thursday, and a European Commission statement later reiterated yesterday's immediate response to their release - thanks for this, but it needs work.
"The Withdrawal Agreement must have a legally operational solution now, and cannot be based on untried arrangements that would be left to negotiation during the transition period," the statement added.
Opposition parties also reacted with hostility. Labour warned the proposals put the Good Friday Agreement in jeopardy, while the SNP and Lib Dems claimed they were “designed to fail” and push the country towards a no-deal exit.
Also on Thursday, Mr Johnson was hit by fresh claims over his relationship with Jennifer Arcuri, with a former aide alleging the PM asked for his friend to be included in a trade trip to Israel while he was mayor of London.
In Northern Ireland, the Belfast High Court ruled that the country's abortion restrictions breached the UK's human rights law. Sarah Ewart, who was forced to travel to England to terminate her pregnancy in 2013, brought the case. “It feels like a weight is lifted off my shoulders. It has been a long journey," she said.
Independent MP Nick Boles – a former minister who left the Tory party in April – has offered his interpretation of current events.
“The only reason Johnson has developed a remotely credible compromise proposal is because the Benn Act removed the possibility of a No Deal Brexit on 31 Oct,” he tweeted. “Until then he was just going through the motions.”
Some have argued the prime minister is still “going through the motions”.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar has begun speaking. He said the UK proposals “fall short” in a number of areas.
The Irish premier says the proposals would need to be reflective of the views of the whole population, not just one party.
The European parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt sounds about as gloomy as can be on the UK’s Brexit plan, calling it “not a serious alternative for the backstop”.
But his steering group is yet to issue a formal statement on the proposals.
Speaking in Stockholm, Mr Varadkar says he is reassured to hear Boris Johnson saying that he is not proposing there will be any new physical infrastructure in Ireland linked to customs checks but "that is actually in contradiction to the papers presented by the UK government yesterday".
Leo Varadkar added: "We don't want to see any customs posts between north and south and nor do we want to see any tariffs or restrictions on trade north and south.
"They were abolished in the 1990s, we don't want to go back to that. The majority of people in the north don't, the majority of people in the republic don't."
The Taoiseach said: "If we are going to be in two different customs unions I think that creates a real difficulty that is going to be hard to reconcile."
European Parliament Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt has told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "We scrutinised the proposals that have been put forward by the UK Government and we are very sceptical about it because again it is repackaging old ideas that have already been discussed in the past."
He added: "We have serious doubts about the seriousness of these proposals because today a memo was leaked, a memo sent by Downing Street to Tory MPs to immediately blame the European Union.
"If such a document has really been sent to the Tory MPs you can have doubts about the seriousness of these proposals."
Boris Johnson will be using the Queen “to make a Conservative party political broadcast” if he launches a new session of parliament just weeks before a general election, a constitutional expert is warning.
All the details here.
Leo Varadkar has said he would prefer not to predict what the outcome will be with the Irish border.
However, he said he took "two positives" from Boris Johnson's proposals.
He said: "One is accepting that regulatory alignment between Northern Ireland and EU is part of what's needed to avoid border checks between north and south, so I think that is a positive move.
"And secondly the suggestion in his letter that we might have a new deal for Northern Ireland that we could look at ways to strengthen the all Ireland economy."
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