Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

Boris Johnson is set to launch a whirlwind round of talks in European Union capitals as he tries to sell his new Brexit proposals to sceptical EU leaders, while also keeping intact an emerging if fragile House of Commons majority for the plan.

The prime minister had been expected to head to Berlin for talks with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Friday. However, scheduling difficulties mean discussions are more likely to begin at the weekend, Downing Street sources said, with trips planned to “several” capitals.

However, no face-to-face talks have yet been confirmed, with Emmanuel Macron’s office saying that the French president was not due to see Johnson at the weekend or next week.

In the interim, Johnson held phone talks on Friday with the European council president, Donald Tusk, as well as Merkel, the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

Johnson’s chief negotiator, David Frost, has already started what Downing Street termed “technical talks” with his EU counterparts in Brussels, going over the as-yet unpublished draft legal protocol submitted by London.

Formally presenting his plans to the Commons on Thursday, Johnson took a noticeably more conciliatory tone than during a furious debate last week, even as Jeremy Corbyn condemned the proposals as a “Trump-deal Brexit” that would risk regulatory standards.

In contrast, several hardline Brexiters among Tory MPs were cautiously positive about Johnson’s plan. Steve Baker, chair of the European Research Group, told the prime minister: “We now glimpse the possibility of a tolerable deal.”
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Boris Johnson is scrapping a commitment by Theresa May to stick to EU rules on the environment, safety standards and workers’ rights – to raise his chances of getting a trade agreement with Donald Trump.

The “level playing field”, included in the Brexit deal negotiated by the former prime minister, was a commitment to abide by rules similar to the EU’s in exchange for market access.

But right-wingers in Mr Johnson’s new cabinet want the commitments downgraded to give the UK more flexibility to lower its standards for American goods.
[...]
Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, said scrapping the protections was “vital for giving us the freedom and flexibility to strike new trade deals and become more competitive”.

A cabinet source also told The Sun newspaper: “The level-playing-field promise has to go, and Boris is very clear about this.

“It would seriously restrict our ability to deregulate and do trade deals with other countries.”

The UK government has promised a court that Boris Johnson will send a letter to the EU seeking an extension to article 50 as required by the Benn act.

The undertaking appears to contradict the prime minister’s statements the UK will leave the EU on 31 October regardless and unattributed claims from Downing Street that he will find a way to sidestep the act.

The pledge has been given in legal papers submitted to the court of session in Edinburgh after anti-Brexit campaigners began legal action to force Johnson to uphold the act’s requirements.

Boris Johnson is careering towards a fresh constitutional crisis, after insisting there will be “no delay” to Brexit just hours after government lawyers promised he would obey the law and request an extension if he failed to clinch a deal within a fortnight.

The prime minister tweeted that there must be “new deal or no deal – but no delay”, echoing the words he used in his party conference speech in Manchester on Wednesday.

But with Brussels refusing the UK’s request for intensive Brexit negotiations to continue through the weekend, it appears increasingly likely Johnson will fail to hit the deadline for a deal laid down in what he calls the “surrender act”.

EU sources said there remained considerable doubt as to whether there was any basis for such discussions, given the Johnson’s insistence on there being a customs border on the island of Ireland.

Meanwhile Julian Smith, the Northern Ireland secretary, was told by a series of senior figures in Belfast that the “Stormont lock” envisaged in the proposal is unworkable, setting up a race against time to rework that aspect of the plan in time for the 17 October European council meeting.

The European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act, drawn up by rebel MPs and passed by parliament, states that if Westminster does not agree to a Brexit deal by 19 October, the prime minister has to write to the EU seeking an extension to article 50 until 31 January.

In extracts of legal papers submitted by the government to the court of session in Edinburgh, that emerged on Friday in a case brought by anti-Brexit campaigners, the government appeared to accept for the first time that it would have to make the request.

The papers, which the government declined to publish in full, stated that the prime minister accepts “he is subject to the public law principle that he cannot frustrate its purpose or the purpose of its provisions. Thus he cannot act so as to prevent the letter requesting the specified extension in the act from being sent.”

Campaigners brought the legal action to force Johnson to comply with the requirements of the Benn act, after a series of suggestions from Downing Street sources that Johnson believes he has found a loophole in the law that will allow him to leave the EU on 31 October regardless.

The UK government refused to release copies of its submissions in this case to the media despite repeated requests by the Guardian, the BBC and other news organisations.

Key excerpts of its pledge were read out instead by Aidan O’Neill QC, the lawyer for the green energy millionaire Dale Vince, the SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC, and the lawyer and anti-Brexit campaigner Jolyon Maugham QC.

O’Neill told Lord Pentland, the judge hearing the case, that Johnson had repeatedly contradicted that position, including in the Commons on Wednesday, by insisting the UK would leave on 31 October “come what may”.

As a result, O’Neill said, the court still needed to issue legally binding orders to force Johnson to comply with the Benn act in an interdict, or injunction. If the prime minister refused to do so, O’Neill could return to court to ask for Johnson to be fined or jailed, he added.

No 10 declined to comment. Yet senior government figures, including some cabinet ministers, continue to insist privately that while they will obey the law as narrowly interpreted, they can still avoid any delay to Brexit.

An attempt to circumvent the law would almost certainly result in another bitter court battle for the government – but Johnson’s allies hope he could thereby present himself as the man trying to “get Brexit done” in the face of obstructionist remainers.

With a Brexit delay forced on him, Johnson could then fight a general election on a platform of a hard Brexit.

Senior government insiders suggest that to confront the challenge from the Brexit party, the Conservatives would have to promise to strike an even tougher bargain than the one the prime minister is currently offering to Brussels.

The backbench rebels who drew up the Benn bill hoped to avert a no-deal Brexit; but Johnson has angrily accused them of undermining the government’s negotiating position.

In Brussels on Friday, a European commission spokeswoman said: “We have completed discussions with the UK for today. We gave our initial reaction to the UK’s proposals and asked many questions on the legal text.

“We will meet again on Monday to give the UK another opportunity to present its proposals in detail.” The spokeswoman added that the proposals did not “provide a basis for concluding an agreement”.

A senior EU diplomat said: “If we held talks at the weekend, it would look like these were proper negotiations. The truth is we’re still a long way from that. We need to work out quickly whether there is the opportunity to close that gap.”

But the Irish deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, speaking after a meeting in Belfast with the Northern Ireland secretary, struck a more upbeat note, saying a deal was “not mission impossible”.

“I believe it is possible to change that [approach including the old backstop] but we have to make sure that while we change the approach the outcome has got to be the same,” he said, adding that he believed “it’s possible to do that with goodwill and energy on all sides” next week.

But Smith was told by several parties at the meeting that the proposal, backed by the DUP, to give the devolved government the final say on Brexit arrangements in the region after Brexit was a non-starter.

One source with knowledge of the meeting said: “The message has gone back from all quarters in Northern Ireland from Sinn Féin to the Traditional Unionist Voice that this is unworkable and it was destabilise the institutions and the Good Friday agreement and is not plausible – and in light of that, if he is serious about getting a deal, he has to come back with something more realistic.”

Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans look to be falling apart as the European commission said there are no grounds to accept a request from the UK for intensive weekend negotiations two weeks before an EU summit.

EU sources said there was no basis for such discussions, given the British prime minister’s insistence on there being a customs border on the island of Ireland.

Johnson’s chief negotiator, David Frost, along with a team of a dozen British officials, failed to convince their EU counterparts in Brussels on Friday that he had a mandate from Downing Street to compromise on what the EU sees as major flaws in the UK government’s proposals.

Frost had been seeking to rescue the British prime minister’s proposed deal after it was strongly criticised. The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, had told diplomats on Thursday evening that the British needed to “fundamentally amend their position”.

A European commission spokeswoman said: “We have completed discussions with the UK for today. We gave our initial reaction to the UK’s proposals and asked many questions on the legal text.

“We will meet again on Monday to give the UK another opportunity to present its proposals in detail.” The spokeswoman added that the proposals did not “provide a basis for concluding an agreement”.

An EU official said: “The UK often asks for meetings to keep [the] process going; we agree we should leave no stone unturned. But there is nothing useful that could be done this weekend.”

A senior EU diplomat said: “If we held talks at the weekend, it would look like these were proper negotiations. The truth is we’re still a long way from that. We need to work out quickly whether there is the opportunity to close that gap.”

Former UUP leader Lord Empey has questioned the DUP's support for Boris Johnson's new Brexit proposals.

The veteran unionist said that he did not understand how any unionist could support the "ghastly" deal to leave the European Union.

The Prime Minister's plans would see Northern Ireland apply EU rules on goods, but stay in a customs territory with the UK.

This would create a regulatory barrier for goods crossing the Irish Sea and create a customs border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but Mr Johnson has insisted there would be no need for checks or infrastructure at the frontier.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph on Saturday DUP leader Arlene Foster said that a grand committee of local MPs could decide on Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trading arrangements if the Stormont institutions remain suspended.

The Prime Minister's plan gives Stormont the power to decide whether Northern Ireland remains aligned with EU regulations post-Brexit. But the 17-page document does not detail what happens if devolution is suspended.

The DUP had previously said that it could not support Northern Ireland remaining in the EU single market or a border in the Irish Sea.

Mr Johnson's new Brexit proposals have been rejected by the vast majority of Northern Ireland's political parties and business organisations.

Lord Empey said that one of the key arguments for the UK leaving the EU was the chance to negotiate new trade deals.

"Such deals, it was claimed, would give us a chance to grow and become, as some said, the Singapore of the west," the unionist peer said.

“Under her plan, Britain will be able to do such deals, whether with President Trump or whoever, but Northern Ireland will be excluded as we will remain in and governed by the rules of the EU single market and ruled by the EU Courts, another red line that the DUP has broken.

“I believe that those in Northern Ireland who voted to leave the EU never imagined that goods coming from Scotland, England and Wales would have to be checked before they came into Northern Ireland; they never foresaw and were promised no border in the Irish Sea."

The UUP Chairman said that under the proposals traders from Northern Ireland were being asked to treat goods coming from Great Britain as if they were coming from a "third country".

"It’s a ghastly deal, and I am still unable to understand how any unionist could be advocating such measures," Lord Empey said.

“The so called 'democratic consent' proposal, that the Assembly would have to agree every four years to these proposals, will be watered down to consultation. But worse, the long term effects of these proposals will be to align the Northern Ireland economy to the Dublin economy and we will diverge over time from the British economy. Where, from a unionist perspective, does that lead us?”

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph Mrs Foster said those criticisng her party's support for Mr Johnson's proposals were "searching for relevance".

"They always have to find a point of difference from the DUP. We were lambasted for the prospect of no-deal," she said.

"Then when we work with the Prime Minister to find a deal, the Ulster Unionist Party in particular can't come out quickly enough to condemn it."

Talks between the UK and the EU over the Prime Minister's new proposals had been set to continue on Saturday, however they will not go ahead after the European Commission said EU member states had agreed the proposals “do not provide a basis for concluding an agreement”.

A spokesman said discussions between the two sides would not take place this weekend and instead the UK would be given “another opportunity to present its proposals in detail” on Monday.

The DUP has been contacted in relation to Lord Empey's comments.

Belfast Telegraph Digital

PM’s outline proposal wins cautious support in Commons but EU reacts with dismay
[...]
After insisting to the Conservative party conference that Britain was ready for a no-deal Brexit, Boris Johnson repeated his pledge that the UK would be leaving the EU on 31 October come what may – and unveiled his “final offer” to the bloc.

Dubbed “two borders for four years”, the plan to replace the controversial backstop boils down to Northern Ireland leaving the EU’s customs territory with the rest of the UK on Brexit day but staying in the single market for goods, and the Northern Irish assembly getting the right to veto the arrangements every four years.

The outline proposal soon won cautious support in Westminster from both the hardline Brexiters of the European Research Group (ERG) and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), although not from Labour, leading many observers to suggest it might actually be capable of winning a slender Commons majority.

But the EU27 reacted with dismay, with the chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, giving a scathing analysis of the PM’s plan, the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, saying it did not meet the “agreed objectives” of the backstop, and the European parliament saying it was “not remotely acceptable”.

As the EU urged Johnson to publish the plan in full, the PM announced plans for a whirlwind tour of European capitals to try to sell it (both the German and French leaders, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, said diary issues would unfortunately make this impossible).

Meanwhile, the government promised a Scottish court that Johnson would if necessary ask the EU for a Brexit extension as required by the Benn act, apparently contradicting his repeated pledges to leave on 31 October regardless and claims from No 10 that he would find a way to sidestep the act – prompting fears he was careering towards a fresh constitutional crisis.

Ministers floated the idea that the “Stormont lock”, requiring the Northern Ireland assembly to approve the arrangements, could be ditched, but Brussels was unconvinced and declined the UK’s request for weekend talks, saying there was as yet no basis on which they could take place.

In Paris, Barnier said a deal was now looking “possible, but very difficult”, adding that no deal would never be the EU’s choice but the UK’s. Macron subsequently gave the PM until the end of this week to fundamentally revise his plan.

No 10 sought on Monday to deflect the blame for the impasse on to the EU, saying the bloc was refusing to “engage fully” with London’s proposals. Brussels responded with a stinging rebuff, leaking a point-by-point rebuttal of the UK’s plans which it said had already been handed to the government.

What next
It’s another critical week. The realistic deadline for finding a deal is probably three or four days before the 17 October EU summit. To reach a deal, the UK must satisfy the EU that its plans for checks on goods crossing the border in Ireland will work, will preserve peace, and will protect the single market and the all-Ireland economy. It will also have to shelve the Stormont lock.

Johnson may have the DUP and ERG on board, but any further British compromises will see them jump ship. And for the EU fundamental issues, not minor technical issues, are at stake: essentially, whether it is possible to leave the EU customs union and still have most of the frictionless border advantages of being in.

Talks will continue: the EU does not want to be seen to be pushing a member out, and Johnson wants to be seen to be doing all he can to secure an agreement, to bolster a future claim that the EU would be to blame for no deal.

And no one knows for sure what will happen if no deal has been achieved by 19 October, at which point the Benn act will oblige the PM to seek a three-month Brexit extension. No 10 says Johnson will obey the law, but he has said he will not resign and would rather “be dead in a ditch” than ask for an extension.
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The UK government is preparing for a breakdown in talks with the EU over Brexit this week, according to No 10.

A government official told the BBC the EU had not shown a desire to "budge one centimetre" since Boris Johnson submitted new proposals to Brussels.

They said a deal was not completely ruled out, but another source said the PM's plans were "the only way out".

It comes after leaks from the European Commission showed major concerns from the EU about the UK's Brexit proposals.

On Monday night, the Spectator published leaked texts from a Downing Street source, who claimed if the deal "dies in the next few days, then it won't be revived".

The government has not denied the leak, which also said Boris Johnson "will do all sorts of things to scupper a delay" to leaving the EU, and that the UK may try to disrupt EU workings if forced to remain.

Former Tory cabinet minister Amber Rudd - who quit her role and job over the government's position on Brexit - said the language was "angry and desperate", and urged the prime minister to focus on getting "clarity" on a deal with "dignity and diplomacy".
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After receiving the proposals, the EU pledged to examine them carefully.

But a number of senior figures, including Ireland's Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, warned the proposals did not form the basis for deeper negotiations - even if they believed a deal could still be done.

French President Emanuel Macron said the EU would decide at the end of the week whether a new deal was possible.

But a leaked presentation to EU diplomats revealed they were unwilling to accept the UK's plans committing to no checks on either side of the Irish border if the Northern Ireland Assembly - Stormont - is granted a veto and there is no guarantee of checks on the UK side.

BBC Brussels correspondent Adam Fleming said EU negotiators were "so nonplussed by the proposal they asked if it was a mistake".

It is understood the UK also wants continuing access to several EU trade databases, even if Stormont withholds its consent for the new arrangements.

Just tell the EU to **** off. They're not a ruling body in reality.

With the teeny-weeny addendum that they have to bear the consequences of the exit of the treaties.

Britain will be at greater risk from terrorism and organised crime if it crashes out of the EU without a deal, a government document has admitted.

Attempts to reach new security agreements with EU members – to replace the European Arrest Warrant and the Schengen Information System database of suspects – “cannot fully compensate”, it concedes.

The admission comes just weeks after James Cleverly, the Conservative party chairman, insisted security co-operation would continue seamlessly, even after a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

In contrast, the ‘No-Deal Readiness Report, published by Michael Gove, states that a crash-out “would result in some mutual loss of capability for the UK and EU member states”.

The UK would be forced to aim for “maximising our use of Interpol” and to use “bilateral channels and other multilateral mechanisms outside EU structures”.

The document insists they are “largely tried and tested mechanisms” already used with the likes of Norway and Switzerland – while admitting they are inferior.

The 155-page – which follows the leak of the Operation Yellowhammer warnings of food, fuel and medicine shortages – also states:

* The UK is still “seeking arrangements” for involvement in Europol after a no-deal Brexit and to continue sharing passenger data.

* There “may be reduced availability and choice” of some food products – although “there would be no overall shortage”.

* The EU is refusing to grant the UK an immediate “adequacy decision” to allow the free flow of data – which will force companies and other organisations to try to make their own arrangements.

* UK ferry companies will be required to provide extensive data in order to continue operating, such as “last 10 ports visited, special or additional security measures taken by the ship, crew list and passenger list”.

* It will take “up to five days” for adult social care providers to import products from the EU.

* Emergency supplies of chemicals may have to be imported to “purify the water supply”, if the industry’s contingency plans are insufficient.

* The biggest suppliers of insulin, life-saving treatment for diabetics, have capacity to stockpile 18 weeks’ worth of supplies.

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* A total of 15,000 civil servants have been pulled off working on other projects to prepare for Brexit.

The British Chambers of Commerce warned its fears of a no-dal Brexit were still “rising”, as a bitter briefing war broke out between London and EU capitals.

“It’s good that government has got its shoulder to the wheel, but it’s going to have to push a lot harder to give businesses answers to the many complex and detailed questions they have in order to trade successfully in the event of an unwanted no-deal exit,” said Dr Adam Marshall, its director general.

Text attributed to Dominic Cummings is riddled with misunderstandings of how EU works

British policy is not usually transmitted to Brussels through a 700-word text message via a journalist. But Brexit works in wonderful ways – and EU officials are not at all convinced, anyway, that the monologue in question, attributed to Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, is really aimed at them.

On Monday evening, shortly after the EU’s comprehensive point-by-point deconstruction of the British proposals was published by the Guardian, the Spectator’s political editor, James Forsyth, made public a text he had received from a “contact in Number 10” on the state of play.

The No 10 official admitted to Forsyth – who works with Cummings’ wife, Mary Wakefield, at the Spectator – that the talks in Brussels would probably end this week as “[Leo] Varadkar doesn’t want to negotiate”.

Ireland’s prime minister was said to have “gone back on his word” by attacking the British government’s proposals rather than shifting the EU’s position in response to British moves on an all-Ireland regulatory zone for goods.

Varadkar was said to be gambling on a second referendum, and was pulling the strings of the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

“At the end of this week they may say: ‘OK, let’s do a Northern Ireland-only backstop with a time limit’, which is what various players have been hinting at, then we’ll say no, and that will probably be the end,” Forsyth’s Downing Street source wrote.

The text message’s verbose author goes on to claim that the result would be one of two outcomes: no deal on 31 October or a general election, in which the Conservative party morphs into the Brexit party, promising to deliver no deal.

The view in Brussels is that the message was not intended for EU consumption. In part that is because it is riddled with misunderstandings of how the EU works.

In securing the first outcome of a no deal on 31 October, the writer appears to admit there is no legal avenue to avoid the prime minister seeking an extension by 19 October.

The Downing Street source puts his faith in threats. Any member state who acquiesces to such an extension request will go to the “back of the queue” when it comes to future cooperation “both within and outside EU competences”. A mysteriously redacted threat over defence and security is also made.

The problem here is twofold: agreement on an extension will be done by unanimity. There won’t be any member states to pick off. The lesson of the unlikely but steadfast unity of the EU27 on Brexit has not been learned. Perhaps he, or she, is new to the ball game?

The second mistake is to believe that threats over withdrawing security cooperation really have any impact. The UK is a member of Nato. Is Downing Street threatening to undermine that multilateral institution too? The defence of Europe against external threats, including Russia, has always been seen as being in the national interest. Similar threats were made and retracted by Theresa May’s government in 2017 given the pointlessness in making them.

The Downing Street source goes on to suggest that the UK will be a truculent and damaging member state if it remains in the EU beyond 31 October. “Everything to do with ‘duty of sincere cooperation’ will be in the toilet,” the No 10 aide writes.

Unfortunately, for the writer there is very little of great importance until June next year, when the EU’s budget is likely to be put to a vote over which the UK could wield its veto. The UK has never been the easiest member state anyway. Should Johnson seek to frustrate the law of the land on agreeing and enacting the terms of the extension, he will be breaking it. The supreme court and the Scottish court of session has been clear.

Given that it is highly likely that much of this is appreciated in Downing Street, EU sources instead see the text message as yet another play in the blame game so central to Johnson’s hopes of winning a majority in the now inevitable general election.

It is increasingly the view in Brussels that the legal text tabled by Johnson on the Irish border was written for rejection, and this text appears to prove it. It is time for Johnson to shout betrayal, and hope the voters believe him.

Leaving EU without a deal will result in 'significant new and ongoing administrative burden' of firms filling out 215 million customs forms a year, assessment finds

Businesses would be hit with a £15bn a year bill for filling out customs forms if there is a no-deal Brexit, according to a new government assessment.

The HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) analysis said companies would face a "significant new and ongoing administrative burden" when transporting goods between the UK and EU in the event of no-deal.

The finding means companies are likely to have to fork out more in administration costs if there is no Brexit deal than the entire £12bn per year that Boris Johnson claims the UK will save when it leaves the EU.

HMRC said UK importers and exporters would likely have to fill out 215 million customs forms a year if Britain crashes out of the bloc.

With administrative costs of between £15 and £56 per form, the total burden on UK businesses would be £7.5bn per year, it said.

HMRC said similar expenses would be expected to hit EU businesses shipping goods to and from the UK, giving a total cost of £15bn, assuming trade remains at 2017 levels.

The hefty burden means that "costs imposed on UK or EU businesses will have wider implications for supply chains therefore for consumers and businesses in either market", the assessment found.

HMRC estimated that companies would have to pay around £28 in administration costs per customs form, given it would take an employee an hour and a quarter to fill out each one.

If this was outsourced to a specialist company then the time would be cut to one hour per declaration, it said, but the cost would rise to £56 per form once charges were included.

The estimates do not include the cost of companies having to amend their systems and train staff in how to use the new customs regime.

The analysis was published as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said even a "relatively benign" no-deal Brexit would result in UK debt rising to its highest level since the 1960s.

Borrowing would rise to £100bn and overall debt would increase to 90 per cent of national income, the think-tank said.

Labour MP Margaret Beckett, a leading supporter of the campaign for a fresh Brexit referendum, said: “The IFS and HMRC today confirmed no-deal would be a disaster for the economy, for jobs and for living standards and we know it will risk supplies of food and medicine and the security of our country.

"It would mean the Brexit crisis dragging on for years to come, with the UK left in a much weaker negotiating position, desperately trying to put our shattered relationships with our friends and allies in Europe back together from scratch. But the wreckers in Downing Street don’t care about any of that. They will not be the ones left to pick up the pieces."

But Boris Johnson's spokesman said: “These figures are estimates. The final costs of completing customs declarations will vary significantly from business to business, depending on how often they trade. We expect them to reduce over time as businesses become more proficient in filling in customs declarations.”

something Johnson was awaiting ...

Brexit Deal essentially impossible, No 10 source says after PM-Merkel call

1 hour ago

A No 10 source has said a Brexit deal is "essentially impossible" after a call between the PM and Angela Merkel.

Boris Johnson and the German chancellor spoke earlier about the proposals he put forward to the EU - but the source said she made clear a deal based on them was "overwhelmingly unlikely".

Mrs Merkel's office said it would not comment on "private" conversations.

But the BBC's Adam Fleming said there was "scepticism" within the EU that Mrs Merkel would have used such language. ...

U.K. government says Brexit deal is "essentially impossible"
BY HALEY OTT, OCTOBER 8, 2019 / 1:09 PM / CBS NEWS

... The dire outlook presented by Johnson's government sparked a war of words with European Council President Donald Tusk, who tweeted directly at the prime minister: "What's at stake is not winning some stupid blame game. At stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people. You don't want a deal, you don't want an extension, you don't want to revoke, quo vadis?" (Quo vadis is Latin for "where are you going.")