‘Bags of time’ left to renegotiate Brexit with EU, claims Britain’s Boris Johnson with less than two months to go

With just 84 days to go until the UK’s scheduled departure from the bloc, the prime minister says further negotiation and compromise are possible

His European counterparts disagree, however, and are unwilling to reopen the withdrawal agreement as a messy no-deal Brexit looms

Reading Time:3 minutes

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson wore a hard hat on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:16am, 9 Aug 2019Updated: 10:26am, 9 Aug 2019

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged European Union leaders to show “common sense” and rewrite the Brexit divorce deal, as he steps up preparations to take the country out of the bloc without one.

With just 84 days to go until the UK’s scheduled departure from the EU on October 31, Johnson claimed there is plenty of time for his European counterparts to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement struck by his predecessor Theresa May, which was rejected three times in parliament.

“I very much hope that our friends and partners will show common sense and that they will compromise,” he said in an interview with the BBC on Thursday.

Johnson has repeatedly said he’ll take the UK out of the EU with or without a deal, and has allocated an additional 2.1 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) for government departments to step up their preparations for crashing out of the bloc. While he has spoken to EU leaders on the phone his office has suggested he will not meet them to discuss Brexit unless they first agree to rip up the exit contract that they agreed with May.

Anti-Brexit campaigners outside the Cabinet Office in London on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

The new British prime minister’s main demand is to remove the so-called backstop plan from the divorce agreement. This is a legal guarantee intended to ensure that there is no need for checks on goods crossing the UK’s land border with Ireland.

Members of Britain’s parliament voted to reject May’s Brexit deal three times, with many saying the backstop was the major problem because it threatens to tie the UK indefinitely to EU trade rules. For pro-Brexit politicians such as Johnson, that would defeat the point of leaving the EU.