Boris Johnson today entered a desperate final race for a Brexit deal as the EU warned it is becoming “more and more difficult” to find agreement this week.
The Prime Minister has barely 24 hours to agree a plan with Brussels before a summit of 27 leaders kicks off on Tuesday.
Hope of a breakthrough mounted as he delayed today’s Cabinet meeting, and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay made a surprise trip to Luxembourg.
But EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who will today update EU chiefs in Brussels, warned this morning it is becoming more difficult to reach a deal in time.
He said reaching a deal is still possible this week – contradicting the Finnish President of the European Council, who last night said “there is no time in a practical or legal way to find an agreement” in time.
But Mr Barnier also warned: “Even if an agreement will be difficult, more and more difficult to be frank, it is still possible this week.”
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He added: “Obviously any agreement must work for everyone, the whole of the United Kingdom and the whole of the European Union.
“Let me add also that it is high time to turn good intentions into a legal text.”
The struggle to reach a deal means Boris Johnson is under pressure to break his “do or die” pledge to leave the European Union on October 31.
Brexit negotiations will go down to the wire on Wednesday with Brussels and the UK still trying to thrash out a compromise on the controversial Irish border issue.
But the Prime Minister was warned that another Brexit delay might be needed to finally get a deal to go through.
As the Telegraph reported last-minute compromises were being thrashed out, the UK insisted a Brexit deal can be negotiated in time for this Thursday’s summit.
(Image: JESSICA TAYLOR/UK PARLIAMENT HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX)
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told BBC’s Newsnight: “The EU is capable of moving extremely quickly if they wish to.
“Like any negotiation with the EU, and in fact with any major negotiation in life, everything happens at the last minute.
“This was always going to be both complicated and come down to the final hours and days, so this doesn’t surprise me. We are going to work round the clock to try to secure it.”
But EU diplomats were pessimistic about the chances of Johnson’s hybrid customs proposal for the Irish border issue.
“We are not very optimistic,” a senior EU diplomat told Reuters.
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It raises the possibility of an emergency EU summit at the end of the month to finally approve any 11th hour deal.
At the State Opening of Parliament, the Queen’s Speech stopped short of repeating Mr Johnson’s explicit promise to leave the EU on Halloween come what may.
Mr Johnson faces a major Commons showdown when he returns to Westminster after the summit for an emergency Saturday sitting of Parliament, the first since the Falklands War.
If he fails to get a deal, he is expected to ask MPs to vote on a no deal Brexit . Opposition MPs could also attempt to table a vote on a second referendum.
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But No 10 said Mr Johnson would not resign if MPs voted down the Queen’s Speech next week – and could even plough on and introduce the bills regardless.
Despite the PM having a majority of almost minus 50, Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed enough MPs will support a deal that comes to Parliament.
“I think the votes are now there for a deal,” Rees-Mogg told LBC radio.
“There is just a mood in the country and politicians have to be to some extent sensitive to the national mood that we want to get on with this.”
