Despite Boris Johnson’s public proclamations that he wants to negotiate a new deal with the European Union to avoid a no-deal Brexit, top EU officials believe he has no intention of doing so and will take the United Kingdom out of the bloc with no deal, according to claims made in a British newspaper.
New British negotiators brought in after one-time Vote Leave campaign frontman Boris Johnson replaced remain-supporting Theresa May as Prime Minister are no longer negotiating what might happen before the October 31st Brexit deadline but after it, according to claims reported by the strongly pro-remain Guardian newspaper.
The report cites the case of new government Brexit advisor David Frost, who it claims is now focussing on “resetting” negotiations with the European Union after Britain leaves after a deal, and quotes an unnamed “senior EU diplomat” who described meetings with his UK counterpart. The individual is reported to have told the paper: “It was clear UK does not have another plan…No intention to negotiate, which would require a plan. A no deal now appears to be the UK government’s central scenario.”
Speaking outside 10 Downing street just minutes after he became Prime Minister last month, Mr Johnson told the country that “of course” neither he nor his team wanted a no-deal Brexit, the full withdrawal of the nation from the European Union which many Brexiteers believe is necessary but which Eurocrats and many British establishment politicians are desperate to avoid.
If the claims are true, it is good news for Brexiteers including Nigel Farage who point out that the much-hated Brexit deal negotiated by former Prime Minister Theresa May amount to a surrender to Europe, and would lock the country into the control of Brussels indefinitely.
Such is the level of hatred of a no-deal Brexit in Westminster, however, there has even been discussion of bringing down the government or setting up a rival Parliament to prevent Boris Johnson delivering the will of the British people as expressed in the 2016 referendum.
That may be an irrelevance, however as top Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings insists it is now technically too late for Parliament to stop Brexit, given the Commons has already voted to pass the legislation to make Brexit day the default, rather than an option. The eccentric mastermind of the leave campaign has said even if Parliament now collapsed the government, the timing is so tight the country would still leave the European Union automatically before Parliament had time to cobble together a new government or hold an election.