BORIS Johnson is to “step up the tempo” with Brussels in his bid to get a new EU withdrawal deal before the October 31 Brexit deadline.
No 10 announced that the UK’s team of negotiators would sit down with their EU counterparts twice a week throughout September, with the possibility of additional technical meetings, to secure an agreement on Britain’s departure.
The key focus will be to find an alternative to what the Prime Minister regards as the “anti-democratic” Irish backstop.
This week, David Frost, Britain’s lead Brexit negotiator, met Brussels’s Article 50 Taskforce and agreed that talks should be intensified in the coming weeks.
What Downing St described as a “new phase of discussions” would begin with two meetings next week.
It noted how the two sides remained “some distance apart on key issues,” but stressed both were willing to work hard to find a way through.
No 10 explained that the teams intended to run through a range of issues, including the impasse around the backstop and the potential solutions to it, which included trusted trade schemes and the electronic pre-clearing of goods.
Mr Frost will be joined in Brussels by relevant officials depending on the agenda for the talks on a given day, including experts on customs, regulatory issues and trade policy.
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The negotiations will continue throughout the planned prorogation period that is due to begin next week ahead of the annual party conference season and the Queen’s Speech set for October 14, enabling the UK’s Brexit team to be “totally focused” on the task at hand in Brussels.
The PM said: “I have said right from my first day in office that we are ready to work in an energetic and determined way to get a deal done.
“While I have been encouraged with my discussions with EU leaders over recent weeks that there is a willingness to talk about alternatives to the anti-democratic backstop, it is now time for both sides to step up the tempo.
“The increase in meetings and discussions is necessary if we are to have a chance of agreeing a deal for when we leave on October 31, no ifs no buts.”
At Westminster, anti no-deal MPs have been in constant talks to produce a plan to stop Britain crashing out of the EU without an agreement on October 31.
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The priority move, likely to come immediately MPs return on Tuesday, will be to secure – with the help of John Bercow, the Commons Speaker - an emergency debate but with a twist: a substantive vote to secure time to pass a new law to force Mr Johnson to seek a Brexit extension; a similar move which was successful in April.
Meanwhile, Ken Clarke, the former Conservative Chancellor, said he would be willing to vote against the Government in a no-confidence vote to try to stop a no-deal Brexit.
He told ITV News: "If it's the only way of stopping us plunging into the disaster of a no-deal Brexit, then yes."
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