Brexit deadline: is Boris Johnson bluffing about walking away without a deal?
- UK prime minister has set a deadline of the October 15 EU summit for a post-Brexit deal on future trading terms
- With significant gaps remaining, the UK has said it would halt negotiations and proceed without a deal
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks set to miss his unilaterally imposed deadline for a draft agreement on a post-Brexit trade deal to present to European Union leaders when they gather in Brussels for a crucial summit on Thursday.
Following phone discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend, EU officials say early November would be fine to have an agreement in place, to be ratified by all 27 EU parliaments before the December 31 exit date.
The UK politically left the EU last January, but trading relations including the free movement of goods and people have remained in transition until the end of the year. In what his opponents and Brussels have regarded as a bluff, Johnson said last month the UK would walk away without a deal if no agreement was struck by October 15.
On Sunday, a Downing Street spokesman said the UK was committed to achieving a deal in the coming days, but prepared to end the transition period “on Australia-style terms if a deal was not possible”.
That could be interpreted as simply trading under World Trade Organization rules, minus the benefits of a specific agreement.
Faced with the worst recession in 300 years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and soaring infection rates that have led to regional lockdowns, the prospect of no agreement with its nearest and largest trading partner was enough to make even the UK government’s most hardline Brexiteers balk.