Triumphant Boris Johnson pulls off miracle Brexit deal as EU boss Jean-Claude Juncker says there must be no more delays
BORIS Johnson took the most dramatic gamble of his Premiership yesterday by sealing a new Brexit deal without his DUP allies. The PM decided to abandon the Ulster unionists after six torturous days of negotiations failed to win them round to his new plan for Northern Ireland. Instead, with just four hours to spare before […]
BORIS Johnson took the most dramatic gamble of his Premiership yesterday by sealing a new Brexit deal without his DUP allies.
The PM decided to abandon the Ulster unionists after six torturous days of negotiations failed to win them round to his new plan for Northern Ireland.
Instead, with just four hours to spare before a crunch EU summit, Boris agreed a breakthrough new agreement with EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker to ditch the hated Irish backstop.
It gives the province a special status of being outside the EU’s Customs Union, but liable to Brussels trade tariffs as well as rules for goods and farming.
Boris then dramatically laid down the gauntlet to Parliament to pass it in a showdown vote tomorrow during a special Commons Saturday sitting – or face a No Deal exit on Halloween instead.
CHANCES OF SUCCESS IN PARLIAMENT ON A KNIFE EDGE
But without the DUP, and with 40 hardline Tory eurosceptics refusing yet to say how they’ll vote, the PM’s chances of it passing were last night on a knife edge.
Speaking in Brussels at the summit, Boris declared he is “very confident” that MPs will back him when they “study this agreement”.
The PM said the last three years, three months and 23 days since the EU referendum result had been “long, painful, and divisive”.
But that will end if MPs allow Britain to leave the EU on October 31 in 13 days’ time.
Mr Johnson insisted: “Now is the moment for us as a country to come together.
“Now this is the moment for our parliamentarians to come together and get this thing done.”
He also hailed his deal as meaning “we can come out of the EU as one United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland – and decide our future together”.
As the titanic battle for Brexit turned to Commons arithmetic, also last night;
- EU chiefs tried to help the PM channel wavering MPs to back his deal by saying there was “no need” for another extension, but failed to completely rule one out,
- The livid Democratic Unionist Party accused Boris of selling out Northern Ireland
- DUP MPs were in talks with hardline Tory eurosceptics and were “hopeful” that 15 members of the ERG would vote with them to sink the deal,
- Mr Johnson refused last night to rule out stripping the whip from Tory MPs who rebel against the deal when quizzed by The Sun.
- The PM hinted he was preparing a package of measures to safeguard workers’ rights in a bid to win over enough pro-Brexit Labour MPs.
- Boris abandoned a Brussels summit early to fly back to London late on Thursday to lead a frantic 48-hour effort to find a Commons majority for the deal without his Ulster allies.
Hitting back at Boris, the furious DUP vowed to mount trench warfare against him in the Commons to block his deal.
The unionist party – whose 10 MPs prop up the PM’s minority Tory Government – turned down the latest offer hammered out by negotiators in Brussels through the night at 6.45am on Thursday.
DUP bosses insisted the plan would undermine “the integrity of the Union” by having customs checks between the province and mainland Britain.
They also insisted it “drives a coach and horses” through the Good Friday Agreement by allowing nationalists to overrule the Unionist community with a simple majority vote in the Stormont assembly.
NIGEL'S FURY
NIGEL Farage blasted Boris Johnson’s Brexit blueprint as “utterly unacceptable” yesterday.
The Brexit Party leader said he would rather delay Britain’s departure than leave under the plan.
He said it was “just not Brexit” and added: “I would much rather we had an extension and a chance of a general election than accept this dreadful new EU treaty.”
Turning the knife, the DUP’s deputy leader Nigel Dodds accused Mr Johnson of being “too eager by far to get a deal at any cost” just to avoid another extension.
Mr Dodds added: “The fact of the matter is if he had held his nerve and he would of course got better concessions which kept the integrity of the UK”.
Another DUP MP, Ian Paisley Jnr, added: “We had a feeling this was coming from a bad meeting we had in No10 on Tuesday night. Boris just doesn’t get the union”.
The DUP were in regular contact with hardline Tory eurosceptics yesterday in a bid to persuade them to vote down the deal.
One unionist MP said they are “hopeful” that 15 MP members of the European Research Group – who dub themselves the Spartans – will vote against the deal, including ex-Cabinet minister Owen Paterson and even former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith.
The MP added: “Boris was always going to shaft us. Some of the ERG will be pulled away, but we’re hopeful 15 will stick with us”.
The EU’s 28 leaders formally signed off the deal after a two hour Brussels meeting yesterday afternoon in a summit room decorated with pumpkins.
Under it, the whole of the UK will be able to benefit from new trade deals.
The Stormont assembly will get a consent ‘veto’ that could end the deal in five years’ time and every four years after then.
QUESTIONS OVER ERG SUPPORT
But it also emerged that Mr Johnson was forced to agree a climb down that means Britain may continue to mirror swathes of EU standards as part of a future trade deal in.
The PM has signed up to a controversial “Level Playing Field” mechanism despite pushing for it to be stripped out of the FTA blueprint.
Announcing the formal deal, EU Council Donald Tusk declared he felt “sadness” and that he wanted the UK to one day rejoin the EU.
Mr Tusk said: “In my heart I will always be a Remainer. I hope the British choose to return one day, because our door will always be open”.
Boris lobbied France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel to rule out any new Brexit delay during meetings in the summit’s sidelines yesterday.
EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker came to the PM’s rescue to say: “He and myself don’t think it’s possible to give another prolongation. There will be no other.
“We have a deal so why should we have a prolongation.”
But the 27 national leaders kept the door open for one by refusing to even address the issue in their formal summit declaration.
If Boris can win tomorrow’s meaningful vote, he then faces a titanic challenge to pass the bill through the Commons in just 12 days by October 31.
‘REALLY GOOD, EXCITING DEAL’
A No10 source added: “It’s this deal or no deal, and all MPs now have to answer that very big question on Saturday.
“This is best deal we are ever going to get, there isn’t going to be another one now”.
Cabinet ministers heaped praise on Boris’s achievement as they mounted a major drive to win MPs’ votes for it.
Commons leader and veteran Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg dubbed it “a really good, exciting deal”, adding: “It delivers on what the Prime Minister promised he would do.
“In 85 days, he has achieved something which could not be achieved in three years”.
Pound up and down
STERLING swung wildly during a day of dramatic Brexit announcements.
The Pound surged to a five-month high of $1.30 after the negotiating teams agreed a deal.
But in turbulent trading it began to lose ground after the DUP said it would not vote for it.
The Pound also rose against the euro, to just above €1.16, before falling back to settle at €1.1525.
MOST READ IN BREXIT
Businesses also told of their delight at an exit deal and smooth transition period, but cautioned what really matters is the shape of the future trade deal with the EU.
Negotiations will only begin on that once Brexit finally takes place.
CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn said: “Frictionless EU trade and regulatory alignment is vital for UK prosperity and jobs”.
Labour slammed the deal, and demanded the Government release an impact assessment on how the deal differs from Theresa May’s ahead of tomorrow’s vote.
Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer claimed it “paves the way for a decade of deregulation”.
Mr Starmer added: “It gives Johnson licence to slash workers’ rights, environmental standards and consumer protections”.
Unions also attacked the deal as worse than Mrs May’s, with UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis dubbing it “a huge leap backwards”.
JEZ BLAST FOR DEAL HE HAD NOT READ
JEREMY Corbyn declared last night that Labour would not back the new Brexit deal — without having read it all.
The Labour leader warned Boris Johnson’s plan risked triggering a “race to the bottom” for workers’ rights.
But he was dismissing it before he even had a chance to read the full Brexit blueprint.
In Brussels yesterday, he said: “From what we have read of this deal it doesn’t meet our demands or expectations.
“From what we know, it seems the Prime Minister has negotiated an even worse deal than Theresa May’s, which was overwhelmingly rejected.”
It came as Labour ducked out of tabling an amendment to force a vote on a second referendum in tomorrow’s Commons showdown.
Mr Corbyn had been expected to back a move amid growing pressure from his backbenchers.
But he has delayed the decision as he is desperate for Mr Johnson’s deal to be defeated.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson will unveil a bumper workers’ rights package today as he tries to woo Labour MPs to back him.
No10 think they need about 15 to switch and back his deal to get it over the line.
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