Boris Johnson news – live: Tusk accuses PM of 'stupid blame game', after disastrous Merkel call leaves Brexit talks on brink of collapse
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Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal appears on the verge of collapse after German chancellor Angela Merkel told him over the phone this morning than an agreement is “overwhelmingly unlikely”, according to Downing Street.
Asked if talks with the EU were close to breaking down, a No 10 source told The Independent: “That is what the prime minister told Merkel. They aren’t negotiating or engaging in Brussels.”
A No 10 source has also claimed there were ways to “scupper” the Brexit delay required by the Benn Act. Amber Rudd said Downing Street sounds “angry and desperate”, while EU Council president Donald Tusk accused the prime minister of playing a “stupid blame game”.
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Former Conservative MP Heidi Allen has been unveiled as the latest recruit to the Liberal Democrats.
Allen told The Independent at least 20 more “One Nation” Tories would like to follow suit, though she admitted she did not know if any would have the “bravery” to jump ship.
Read our political editor Andrew Woodcock’s exclusive here.
Boris Johnson’s attempts to secure a deal with Brussels continue to be met with frostiness by EU leaders, whose objections are beginning to become clearer.
EU leaders are still refusing to enter into detailed discussions on the plan, saying it does not represent the basis for a new Brexit settlement.
Brussels’ main concern is an aspect of the Ireland protocol which commits both sides to never introducing checks on the Irish border, according to the BBC.
And according to The Guardian, the EU negotiators have given their British counterparts a “point-by-point” rejection of the proposals put forward by the PM last week.
The EU would see it as an unacceptable loss of control if Stormont is given a veto every four years, and there were no guarantees over what checks the UK would carry out on goods going to Ireland.
The BBC reported that the EU Commission even asked if this was a mistake in the text.
A source at No 10 has claimed there were “all sorts of things” they could do to “scupper” the Brexit delay required by the Benn Act if the government fails to get a deal with the EU.
In a lengthy message sent to The Spectator’s political editor James Forsyth, the source was also quoted as blaming Irish premier Leo Varadkar for refusing to negotiate, and warning that if Johnson’s plan “dies” in the next few days it would not be revived.
“To marginalise the Brexit Party, we will have to fight the election on the basis of ‘No more delays, get Brexit done immediately’,” the source is quoted as saying.
The source is also quoted as saying: “Those who pushed the Benn Act intended to sabotage a deal and they’ve probably succeeded.
“So the main effect of it will probably be to help us win an election by uniting the leave vote and then a no-deal Brexit. History is full of such ironies and tragedies.”
The source is quoted as saying that it will be made clear that countries which oppose delay will “go the front of the queue for future co-operation - co-operation on things both within and outside EU competences”.
The person added: “Those who support delay will go to the bottom of the queue.”
Some reaction to that remarkable No 10 briefing. Robert Peston said it was “the most explosive Downing St briefing in modern times”
The ITV presenter added: “Trolling from inside the Johnson bunker of this ambition and magnitude will have repercussions. It’s basic Newtonian physics.”
David Cameron has warned Boris Johnson that he will have to make further compromises if he wants the UK to leave the EU with a Brexit deal.
“The answer I suspect is now compromise on both sides,” he told the audience at the Barbican centre in London on Monday night.
“Boris is compromising and I suspect may have to move a bit more. And the EU should compromise too.”
The former premier also said Johnson could not ignore the Benn Act which requires him to ask the EU for a further delay to Brexit if he cannot get a deal by October 19.
“You can’t disobey the law as prime minister,” he said.
Boris Johnson called Extinction Rebellion protesters a bunch of “nose-ringed, hemp-smelling” activists and “uncooperative crusties” at a book launch for Charles Moore’s latest Margaret Thatcher biography last night.
He also claimed Thatcher took climate change seriously “long before Greta Thunberg”.
Johnson reportedly also said his advisors warned him against attending in case he was egged by protesters, but he asked them “what would Maggie do?” before deciding to turn up.
All the details here.
The Court of Session’s Inner House is set to hear a request by campaigners that Scottish judges use the unique power of “nobile officium” – known as a “nob off” – to empower a court official to sign the extension letter if Boris Johnson refuses to do so.
Documents submitted to the court on behalf of the prime minister on Friday revealed he accepted he must send the letter requesting an extension to the Brexit deadline under the terms set out in the Benn Act legislation.
Campaigner and barrister Jo Maugham QC said: “On Tuesday the Inner House will consider whether or not, if the Prime Minister refuses to do what he has told the court that he will do, the court can sign the letter for the Prime Minister, the letter mandated by the Benn Act.”
Tory rebel Amber Rudd said she believes the No 10 source quoted by The Spectator political editor James Forsyth as saying there were “all sorts of things” they could do to scupper a delay is Boris Johnson’s controversial aide Dominic Cummings.
Speaking about the response The Spectator received from a Downing Street contact when asked about the progress of the Brexit talks, Rudd told the Today programme: “It sounds angry and desperate.”
Asked if she thinks it was written by Cummings, she said: “I think Dominic Cummings, yes, because otherwise it would have been heavily denied and heads would have rolled. So clearly it’s come from them, it’s in their style.
“It reveals that there doesn’t appear to be an actual plan at all. Instead, what they’re doing is angrily, apparently, begging the EU not to support a delay which will be required because of the position that parliament has taken.
“And I urgently would ask the prime minister to take control of this and give us some clarity and some dignity and diplomacy on what is taking place.”
Rudd added: “First of all, government has consistently been saying since the Benn Act was passed that they have a cunning plan.
“And many of us have been confused by the idea of saying that they will obey the law but we are definitely leaving on October 31. And I don't think that this memo suggests that there is any plan.”
She added: “What they’re doing in fact is going down on one knee and begging EU members not to participate in this.”
Amber Rudd also made clear in her Today programme interview that neither she or any other former Tory MPs expelled from the party would support Jeremy Corbyn as the caretaker prime minister.
She said “under no circumstances” would she back Corbyn as PM.
It’s something the Lib Dems have been pointing out for several weeks, arguing that the Labour leader does not have the numbers in the Commons to lead a unity government.
Here’s Rudd attacking No 10 as “angry and desperate”.
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