British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put a bombshell on Brexit negotiations that are resuming today after a summer of ‘idlers’. ‘A no deal is a good result.’

 

EU diplomats were on the Eurostar heading to London yesterday for the eighth round of Brexit negotiations when members of the Conservative Party received an email from Prime Minister Boris Johnson around lunchtime.

“An agreement must be reached with our European friends by October 15,” it said in bold letters. ‘If we still don’t agree, then we each have to go our own way.’

A no-deal scenario, Johnson continued, “would be a good result for the UK.” In the high-speed train from Brussels, a report in the Financial Times caused more uproar.

According to the newspaper, the British government is working on a law in which agreements already made with the EU about Northern Ireland can be set aside if the deadline is not met.

The European envoys must be as guessing as to the true reasons for the display of muscle as his political allies. A few weeks ago, MPs from his party were concerned about why their leader had spent the summer ‘lounging around’.

Johnson claimed to have practically worked out a deal with the EU. At the table with negotiators from Brussels, this turned out not to be the case.