Boris Johnson tells UK: prepare for a no-deal Brexit

Boris Johnson has told Britons to prepare for a no-deal Brexit unless the EU makes a fundamental change in its approach to the deadlocked trade and security talks.

In a televised statement, the prime minister stopped short of walking away from the talks, despite his self-imposed deadline for a deal having passed on Thursday.

Instead he said the country would have to prepare for a no-deal scenario on 1 January, while paving the way for the talks to continue next week as suggested by the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

Johnson said he was making the decision to prepare for no deal with “a high heart”.

“A lot of progress has been made on such issues as social security and aviation, nuclear cooperation, and son on,” he said, but “for whatever reason, it’s clear from the [EU] summit that after 45 years of [UK] membership they are not willing, unless there’s some fundamental change of approach, to offer this country the same terms as Canada”.

He said that given there were only 10 weeks left until the transition period ended, he had to make a judgement about the likely outcome and to prepare the country.

Video: EU and Britain to keep talking past Johnson’s Brexit deadline (Reuters)

EU and Britain to keep talking past Johnson’s Brexit deadline

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“I concluded that we should get ready for 1 January with arrangements that are more like Australia’s – based on simple principles of global free trade,” he told reporters in a pooled broadcast statement.

“So, we have high hearts, and with complete confidence we will prepare to embrace the alternative and we will prosper mightily as an independent free-trading nation, controlling our own borders, our fisheries and setting our own laws.”

Critically, Johnson left the door open for further talks scheduled for Monday in London, but tried to seize the upper hand by telling EU leaders they must make the first compromise over the key battlegrounds of state aid and fisheries.

“[There] doesn’t seem to be any progress coming from Brussels so what we’re saying to them is only, you know, come here, come to us if there’s some fundamental change of approach.”

Responding to Johnson’s statement, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European commission, tweeted that the EU “continues to work for a deal, but not at any price. As planned, our negotiation team will go to London next week to intensify these negotiations.”

Johnson’s remarks were also dismissed by keen Brexit watchers in the UK.

Georgina Wright, the Brexit lead at the Institute for Government thinktank, said: “This really isn’t news … Next week will be crucial”.

Manufacturing Northern Ireland, a trade lobbying group, said moving to a no-deal Brexit was “reckless” and the public deserved better than “political games”.