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In Blow to Hopes for a Brexit Deal, a Leaked British Plan Is Rejected As Boris Johnson’s Time to Get a Brexit Deal Ticks Down, Blame Game Heats Up
(about 11 hours later)
MANCHESTER, England — With time running out for a deal on Brexit, the Irish government and European Union officials have rejected the latest British thinking on how to resolve an impasse over the Irish border, a serious setback to prospects for a breakthrough. MANCHESTER, England — As Prime Minister Boris Johnson readied the release of his final Brexit plan, politicians and diplomats on Tuesday were puzzling over a basic question: Is he more interested in reaching an agreement with the European Union, or averting blame for failure to get one?
Progress on the border issue is urgent if Britain is to agree with the European Union on the terms of its withdrawal, which is scheduled to take effect at the end of the month. Leaving without an agreement, experts warn, would mean a disorderly, possibly chaotic and damaging rupture. A new proposal from Mr. Johnson is expected on Wednesday, Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union at the end of October, and a deal with the bloc is needed urgently to avoid the risk of a disorderly, possibly chaotic and damaging rupture.
The latest British plan, a set of informal proposals given to European negotiators, would create customs sites or zones to check goods on both sides of the border, and place tracking devices on trucks to monitor their movements. Parts of the plan were leaked, and made public Monday night by the Irish broadcaster RTE. On Tuesday, Mr. Johnson appeared to disown some details of leaked British plans to resolve the central problem, an impasse over the Irish border. But he confirmed enough to suggest that the two sides remain far apart.
The idea of custom check zones was described in a post on Twitter as a “nonstarter” by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney. Optimists hope that the prime minister will produce an improved offer and that, with the clock ticking toward Oct. 31, an agreement can be clinched in the time-honored tradition of eleventh-hour European negotiations.
European officials have said that they have not yet received any formal proposals from the British government, but they have been making it clear that the leaked plan would be unacceptable. The reactions suggested that the two sides were nowhere near an agreement on the thorny issue with the deadline looming large. But Mr. Johnson’s critics in Parliament and in Brussels say that he has no intention of offering a deal the bloc can accept. They say he is more interested in positioning himself for a looming general election as the uncompromising champion of Brexit than in solving the cumbersome details of customs procedures for Ireland.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain confirmed on Tuesday that he would present a formal plan “fairly shortly.” A summit meeting of European Union leaders is scheduled for Oct. 17-18 — a gathering that many see as the last chance of striking a deal. “The blame game is underway,” said Anand Menon, professor of European politics and foreign affairs at King’s College London. “We are now in a territory where the political game is who is responsible for whatever outcome we have, rather than focusing on the outcome itself.”
Speaking to the BBC, Mr. Johnson said that some of the reporting about his plan was “not quite right,” but he did not dispute the overall strategy: Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom; and the Republic of Ireland, a part of the European Union, would be in separate trading and customs systems, requiring checks on many goods that cross the border. With a general election expected soon, the question of responsibility for the Brexit mess could be crucial.
The prime minister dismissed as unacceptable the alternative of having most of the United Kingdom operate under one system, while Northern Ireland remains tied to a different set of rules. If talks collapse, Mr. Johnson could be forced by Parliament to break his word and seek another delay to Brexit. Or Mr. Johnson, who has said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than seek such a delay, could try to defy or circumvent a law passed by Parliament prohibiting a no-deal Brexit.
In either outcome, Mr. Johnson would want to blame others — opposition parties and the European Union. In a sign of the growing tensions, the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, suggested the leaked British plans were unacceptable.
In Manchester, Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party has been meeting at a conference designed as a pre-election showcase of his policies, to persuade voters that once Britain leaves the European Union, the government would focus on domestic priorities like health care and crime.
But there is no getting away from Brexit as Mr. Johnson approaches a critical moment in discussions with the European Union.
Currently, Ireland and Britain are both members of the European Union, operating under the same tariff rules and product standards, so there is no need to check goods crossing the border with Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. But after Brexit, that would change.
Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, negotiated a withdrawal agreement that would have kept the whole of the United Kingdom under Europe’s trade rules until a technological solution could be found to check trucks without stopping them.
That arrangement, known as the Irish backstop, was reviled by hard-line Brexit supporters — one of the reasons Parliament rejected Mrs. May’s plan three times — and Mr. Johnson has refused to accept it either.
The latest British ideas, based on informal proposals given to European negotiators, would create customs sites or zones to check goods on both sides of the border, and place tracking devices on trucks to monitor their movements. Parts of these proposals were leaked, and made public Monday by the Irish broadcaster RTE.
The idea of a network of customs zones was described on Twitter as a “non-starter” by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney — a message that was reposted by Mr. Varadkar.
On Tuesday Mr. Johnson said that news accounts of the proposals were “not quite right,” but he did not dispute the overall strategy: Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would be in separate trading and customs systems, requiring checks on many goods that cross the border.
“In the end, a sovereign, united country must have a single customs territory,” he said. “When the U.K. withdraws from the E.U., that must be the state of affairs that we have,” he added, noting that Britain and the European Union were approaching “the critical moment of choice about how we proceed.”“In the end, a sovereign, united country must have a single customs territory,” he said. “When the U.K. withdraws from the E.U., that must be the state of affairs that we have,” he added, noting that Britain and the European Union were approaching “the critical moment of choice about how we proceed.”
Some progress has been made. In discussions with the European Union, Mr. Johnson has already accepted that Northern Ireland could remain within the European Union’s trade umbrella for agricultural and some food products, but he has refused to make the same concession for other goods. The prime minister dismissed as unacceptable the alternative of having most of the United Kingdom operate under one system, while Northern Ireland remains tied to different rules.
Currently, Ireland and the United Kingdom are both members of the European Union, operating under the same tariff rules and product standards, so there is no need to check goods crossing the border. That is a big problem for the Irish government, which wants to keep things as close as possible to the way they are at present, with free and uninterrupted flow of goods across the Irish border.
Mr. Johnson’s comments suggested that the checking sites he proposes would not need to be near the border. But the idea of physical checks on goods, even at locations away from the frontier, is likely to breach one of the European Union’s negotiating red lines. For Ireland, the imposition of any form of border checks is sensitive because removing the physical infrastructure separating the two countries was a central element of the peace process that unfolded in the 1990s. And without the support of Ireland’s government, the European Union is unlikely to agree to any new Brexit deal.
For Ireland, the imposition of any form of border checks is sensitive because removing the physical infrastructure separating the two countries was a central element of the peace process that unfolded in the 1990s. And without the support of Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, the European Union is unlikely to agree to any new deal. On Tuesday, Mr. Varadkar, speaking in the Irish Parliament, said he had welcomed Mr. Johnson’s words distancing himself from some ideas advanced in the leaked British papers, adding pointedly, “had he not, in my view, it would have been hard evidence of bad faith on behalf of the British government.”
Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, negotiated an agreement with Brussels that would have kept the whole of the United Kingdom under Europe’s trade rules until a technological solution could be found to check trucks without stopping them. That arrangement, known as the Irish backstop, was reviled by hard-line Brexit supporters — one of the reasons Parliament rejected Mrs. May’s plan three times. “People in Northern Ireland don’t want a customs border between north and south,” he said. “And no British government should seek to impose customs posts between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland against the will both of the people in Northern Ireland and the people here in the Republic of Ireland.”
In a statement, Keir Starmer, Brexit spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, dismissed the latest British plans as “utterly unworkable.” British officials insist that the plans they are creating are workable and could produce a border that operates more securely than some of the European Union’s other external frontiers, for example the one with Russia.
“They would place an enormous administrative burden on businesses and rely on technology that does not yet exist,” he added. Some progress has been made in discussions with the European Union. Mr. Johnson has already accepted that Northern Ireland could remain within the European Union’s trade umbrella for agricultural and some food products, even if he has refused to make the same concession for other goods.
At the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, in northwestern England, there had been some optimism that if Mr. Johnson could strike a deal in Brussels, it might be approved in Parliament. Speaking on Monday, one of the most hard-line supporters of Brexit, Mark Francois, said he would consider any plan Mr. Johnson returned with and vote for it if it delivered a satisfactory withdrawal. British officials acknowledge, however, that their emerging proposals could violate some principles that European Union negotiators have set, and that both sides will have to compromise.
But Mr. Johnson’s critics, both in the British opposition and in Brussels, contend that he is not negotiating in good faith and is happy to contemplate the prospects of a “no deal” Brexit despite the potential disruption that would cause. Speaking at the conference in Manchester, David Gauke, a former cabinet minister who defied Mr. Johnson to support plans to prevent a no-deal Brexit — and was ejected from the Conservative Party for it — said that he was not optimistic about prospects for an agreement.
Parliament has already passed legislation intended to prevent Britain from leaving the European Union without an agreement. But Mr. Johnson has insisted that Brexit will happen at the end of the month, with or without an agreement. Though Mr. Johnson had been persuaded to pursue talks, Mr. Gauke said, “I fear that more recently the government has got to the position where it is all too difficult and there isn’t a solution.”
Lawmakers have refused to allow Mr. Johnson to call a general election until he has requested another Brexit extension, something he has promised not to do. His worry, he added, was that “we are not really after a deal but we want to show that it is not our fault.”