Boris Johnson news – live: PM says no-deal Brexit is ‘touch and go’ as he threatens to withhold divorce bill from EU

Mr Johnson said: "There's an opportunity to do a great free trade deal with the United States.

"The president is very gung-ho about that and so am I."

But he added: "I don't think people realise quite how protectionist sometimes the US market can be, but what I'm saying to Donald, to the president Donald Trump is, you know, this is a big opportunity for both of us but we need to some movement and we need to see movement from the US side.

"They want to do it within a year, I'd love to do it within a year, but that's a very fast timetable."

Mr Johnson also confirmed the UK would withhold part of the Brexit divorce bill if there was no deal.

"If we come out without an agreement it is certainly true that the £39bn is no longer, strictly speaking, owed."

Mr Johnson said: "I think at the moment, there's a reasonable chance that we'll get a deal, but in order to get that deal, to repeat my message, we've got to prepare to come out without one."

He added: "I think the chances of a deal are improving. But there's got to be great deal of realism on part of our friend that Withdrawal Agreement is dead, the text that parliament rejected three times cannot now be made to go through. People think what's this all about?

"Fundamentally, the problem with that Withdrawal Agreement is that it would keep us locked in EU's trading ... It would keep us locked in the EU's trading arrangements and in the lunar pull of EU law without being able to have a say. That's why it's totally unacceptable."

The prime minister said the prospect of a Brexit deal was "touch and go".

"It all depends on our EU friends and partners, I think in the last few days there has been a dawning realisation in Brussels and other European capitals what the shape of the problem is for the UK," he told the BBC.

"I think it's going to be touch and go but the important thing is to get ready to come out without a deal."

He promised that if there was a no-deal Brexit people would still be able to get their medicine.

He said: "That is certainly a guarantee that we can make."

The PM was asked whether he could promise there would not be medicine and food shortages after 31 October is there is no deal.

"What I can tell people and as I said a few weeks ago on the steps of Downing St, I think we can get through this, this is a great, great country the UK, we can easily cope with a no-deal scenario. And I know that's what people want," he said.

Mr Johnson added: "Frankly I think it's highly unlikely that there will be food shortages of any kind."

The prospect of a No Deal Brexit is "touch and go", Mr Johnson says: 

Mr Johnson is expected to tell Donald Tusk, the head of the European Council, that the UK will only pay £9bn instead of the $39bn liability agreed by Theresa May, the former prime minister, under a no-deal Brexit, Sky News reported.

Britain will give £90m to help children in conflict zones go to school, Mr Johnson has announced at the G7 summit. Andrew Woodcock, our political editor in Biarritz, has the full story:

"Every president needs a Johnson," Boris Johnson's sister, Rachel, has tweeted, in an echo of Margaret Thatcher’s remark that “Every prime minister needs a Willie”, about her home secretary, William Whitelaw.

Mr Trump and Abe Shinzo, Japan's prime minister, have displayed their differences over the seriousness of North Korea's series of short-range missile launches, while maintaining that they would remain in sync on the issue.

Mr Trump, who prizes his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said the launches did not violate an agreement and were in line with what others were doing.

Mr Abe said the launches violated UN resolutions.

Launches of short-range ballistic missiles on Saturday were the seventh by North Korea since Mr Trump and Mr Kim met at the inter-Korean border in June.

Philip Hammond, the former chancellor, has demanded an apology from Boris Johnson over the leak of an explosive document setting out the government’s fears of chaos after a no-deal Brexit, Andrew Woodcock​, our political editor, writes: