UK PM Boris Johnson to submit Brexit grand bargain but Ireland sceptical

Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, England. Johnson on Tuesday said Britain will shortly present the EU with proposals for an amended Brexit agreement, including ideas that remove the contested insurance policy for the Irish border that Britain previously signed up to. File photo: AP Photo/Frank Augstein.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, England. Johnson on Tuesday said Britain will shortly present the EU with proposals for an amended Brexit agreement, including ideas that remove the contested insurance policy for the Irish border that Britain previously signed up to. File photo: AP Photo/Frank Augstein.

Published Oct 1, 2019

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MANCHESTER - Britain will shortly

present the European Union with proposals for an amended Brexit

agreement, including ideas that remove the contested insurance

policy for the Irish border that Britain previously signed up

to, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

More than three years since the 2016 referendum, the United

Kingdom is heading towards an October 31 Brexit date without a

clear understanding of whether it will leave with a deal,

without a deal or even leave by that deadline.

Before the proposals were formally made, Ireland dismissed

reported ideas including physical checks on goods at a distance

from the border itself, with Foreign Minister Simon Coveney

quipping: "non-starter".

"We've made a very good offer, we're going to make a very

good offer, we're going to be tabling it formally very soon,"

Johnson, a leader of the "Out" campaign in the referendum, told

the BBC.

"We do think there's a good way forward, we do think there's

a good solution. I very much hope that our European, EU friends

in Brussels, in Dublin, in Germany as well will want to take it

forward."

Johnson says he wants to secure an amended agreement at an

EU summit on October 17-18, and that both sides are keen on a deal

that could allow an orderly Brexit.

In a moment of truth that will define the future of Brexit

and his premiership, Johnson is betting he can get enough

concessions from Brussels to make an agreement acceptable to

many Brexit supporters in the British parliament, which must

ratify any deal.

If he succeeds, Johnson will go down in history as the

British leader who delivered Brexit. If he fails, a law has been

passed by parliament forcing him to delay Brexit -- a step that

could destroy his popularity among "Leave" voters.

IRELAND

Ireland is crucial to any Brexit solution.

Johnson's gamble hinges on the removal of the backstop, an

insurance policy which aims to avoid the reimposition of checks

along what would be the United Kingdom's only land border with

the EU, between Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland.

Maintaining an open border is seen by many on the island of

Ireland and by the EU as important to safeguarding the 1998 Good

Friday Agreement (GFA) that ended decades of sectarian violence

in Northern Ireland.

"What we want to do is to get rid of the backstop, that is

the most important thing," Johnson said, adding there was no

point in leaving the EU only to stay locked in a customs union.

The Withdrawal Agreement that former Prime Minister Theresa

May struck in November with the EU says the United Kingdom will

remain in a customs union "unless and until" alternative

arrangements are found to avoid a hard border.

Johnson said on Tuesday he didn't want to threaten the GFA.

But many British lawmakers oppose the prospect of being

bound to EU rules and customs duties that would prevent Britain

doing its own trade deals and leave it overseen by EU judges.

"We would like to be able to vote for a deal and actually

I'm highly confident if Boris brings back a deal it will be a

deal which he expects we'll want to support," said Steve Baker,

chairman of the European Research Group of pro-Brexit

Conservative lawmakers.

"If it's Brexit in name only, I will vote against it."

"NON STARTER"?

Under questioning, Johnson said there would have to be some

checks on the island of Ireland -- a step too far for Irish

nationalists. Dublin has also consistently said that the border

must remain seamless.

"That's just the reality," Johnson said. "Because in the

end, a sovereign, united country must have a single customs

territory. When the UK withdraws from the EU that must be the

state of affairs that we have."

Johnson denied a report by Irish broadcaster RTE that there

would have to be border posts between 5-10 miles (8-16 km) back

from the border.

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said on Tuesday a

reported proposal from Britain to set up "customs clearance

centres" on both sides of the Irish border was absolutely not

acceptable as it represented a hardening of the frontier.

"What we're coming up to now is, as it were, the critical

moment of choice for us as friends and partners about how we

proceed," Johnson said. 

Reuters

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