Section:GDN 1N PaGe:9 Edition Date:190827 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 26/8/2019 20:21 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Tuesday 27 August 2019 The Guardian •
9▼ Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau,
Angela Merkel and Emmanuel
Macron at a meeting yesterday
PHOTOGRAPH: SEAN KILPATRICK/AP
longer, strictly speaking, owed,” he
said. “There will be very substantial
sums available to our country to spend
on our priorities. It’s not a threat. It’s a
simple statement of reality.”
The £39bn – a UK calculation never
confi rmed by the EU – no longer exists.
The fi gure was based on an exit day of
29 March , but the UK has remained a
member state, continuing to pay into
the EU budget and reducing its Brexit
bill. The settlement consists of UK
membership contributions until the
end of 2020, as well as a British share of
EU staff pensions and spending plans.
The European commission’s chief
spokesperson, Mina Andreeva, said
that the UK would be expected to
“continue to honour all commitments
made during EU membership”.
She told journalists: “Rather than
going now into a judicial action threat,
I think that it is important to make clear
that settling accounts is essential to
starting off a new relationship on the
right foot based on mutual trust.”
Johnson met the European coun-
cil’s president, Donald Tusk, on
Sunday in Biarritz but did not men-
tion withholding part of the Brexit bill.
Journal Polly Toynbee Page 1
Sketch
John CraceIt all went swimmingly,
thought Boris. I saved
the tiger and Trump
made me look sane
O
n the whole it had been a rather agreeable
weekend in Biarritz. Some of the
assembled world leaders might have been
a bit meh, and it was always disconcerting
coming face to face with someone with
an even greater personality disorder than
your own, but by and large everyone had rubbed along
OK. Factor in the morning swims, the food being better
than expected and that he had managed to not spill
wine on the sofa, and this was pretty much how Boris
Johnson had always imagined being prime minister
would be. Plenty of photo ops, high-level schmoozing
and no obligation to do anything much. Just fun, fun,
fun and music for the thirsty narcissistic soul.
The G7 summit was perfectly tailored to everyone’s
needs. Each leader could come away with their own
wellness experience of what had happened without
fear of being contradicted. If you wanted it to have been
about Iran that was OK. And if you wanted it to have
been about marine conservation, well, that was OK too.
Still, all good things must come to an end and
Johnson was in a hurry to get back to the UK. There was
just one problem. He was due to give a press conference
and the podium was occupied by Donald Trump, who
had decided to close the G7 with an hour-long free
association therapy session. Yes,
the US president was very much
looking forward to hosting next
year’s summit at his Miami retreat
because everyone would have their
own bungalow and there was plenty
of parking. Yes, he might invite
Vladimir Putin, but then again he
might not. Yes, he couldn’t see what
the problem with the Northern
Ireland backstop was because the
Republic of Ireland was part of the
United Kingdom. He knew that
because he had a golf course there.
And why didn’t people talk so much about Englandland
these days? Boris? Great guy. He didn’t know why he
hadn’t been made prime minister six years ago. Possibly
because there hadn’t been a vacancy.
Johnson’s irritation at having his plane held up on
the runway gradually gave way to a sense of calm. The
advantage of being the next guy up after someone who
is certifi able is that almost anything would sound sane in
comparison. The G7 had marked a huge step forward for
the Sumatran tiger, he declared.
What people really wanted to know was what he was
intending to do about Brexit. Here Johnson’s zen-like
mask of self-realisation began to slip and the furtive,
guilty smirk crossed his face. Because the whole point of
Brexit was that he didn’t actually have a plan. Other than
to gaslight the country with a succession of competing
and contradictory visions.
O ne day a no-deal Brexit might be a million to
one shot and on the next it might be the most likely
outcome. He might withhold the £39bn or he might
hand it over. After all, this wasn’t so much about getting
Brexit done as keeping him in power for as long as
possible. He liked the house, he liked the privilege. And
if he didn’t know what he was doing, then none of the
other EU leaders would know either.
“Piffl epaffl ewiffl ewaffl e,” Johnson said, as he was
asked several times about his willingness to prorogue
parliament. Maybe yes, maybe no. He was like the wind.
And no he couldn’t imagine why Philip Hammond might
have thought No 10 had briefed that he had leaked the
no-deal documents. The very idea.The G7 summit suited
everyone’s needs. If you
wanted it to have been
about Iran, or perhaps
marine conservation,
that was OKBoris Johnson made his prime
ministerial debut at a major
international gathering this
weekend at the G7 in Biarritz. Here
are six things we learned :Johnson really loves being
prime minister
The personal plane, the phalanx
of advisers, the face-time with the
world’s most powerful people:
anyone would enjoy playing prime
minister for a while. But this is
Johnson’s dream job – and he is
absolutely loving it. Whether it was
pointing at a smirking Donald Trump
across the breakfast table, or ribbing
Australia’s Scott Morrison about the
cricket, every photo of Johnson at
this weekend’s summit showed him
grinning from ear to ear.If there is a Brexit plan, he hasn’t
revealed it yet
Donald Tusk said on Saturday
he was “willing to listen to ideas
that are operational, realistic and
acceptable to all EU member states,
including Ireland, if and when the
UK government is ready”. After the
meeting, EU offi cials said there were
“no new substantive elements from
any side, and obviously not from the
UK side” and Johnson himself gave
no clues about what was in store.It’s all about the blame game
Over and again when he was
questioned by reporters, Johnson
insisted that a no-deal Brexit
would come about only because of
the “obduracy” of “our EuropeanHeather StewartJeremy Corbyn would support Boris
Johnson in calling a general election,
even if polling day fell just days before
the 31 October Brexit deadline, the
Guardian understands.
The Labour leader’s team is con-
vinced a no-deal Brexit could be
thwarted by securing an extension
from the EU , even after the European
council meeting on 17 October.
Johnson is widely believed to be
plotting a snap poll if MPs try to thwart
his Brexit plans, for example by pass-
ing legislation forcing him to ask for
an extension to article 50.
Under the Fixed-term Parliament
Act, the prime minister would need afriends”. Downing Street apparently
still hopes to avoid that eventuality- and some Brussels-watchers
claim there are signs of fl exibility
emerging – but he is carefully laying
the groundwork for blaming the
EU27 if things go wrong.
He’s an animal fan
Theresa May had a late conversion to
the environmental cause, legislating
for a target of net-zero emissions
by 2050 in her fi nal weeks in offi ce.
Johnson wants to be even greener.
He made species extinction one
of his three themes at the summit,
telling leaders that tackling the
climate emergency and protecting
endangered species were “two
sides of the same coin” , and r aised
whaling with the Japanese prime
minister, Shinzo Abe.Britain is still ready to side with
the EU – sometimes
A key message Johnson aimed to
land was that although Britain was
leaving the EU, it would still have
common interests with E U states. He
lined up against Trump at Saturday’s
testy summit dinner and insisted
Russia must not be readmitted to
the G7. That has been a consistent
UK position, particularly since the
Sergei Skripal attack in Salisbury, but
Johnson will have been pleased to
be on the same side as Angela Merkel
and Emmanuel Macron, both of
whom he will need to work closely
with in coming days.Buff oonery is out
In the past, one reason for Johnson’s
frequent gaff es was his constant,
approval-seeking tic of sprinkling
jokes into every public utterance.
During his leadership campaign,
allies were already saying they had
seen a more serious side of the man
once better known for his Have I Got
News for You appearances than his
parliamentary oratory. He’s still fond
of using playful language , but he
seems to have decided that gags are
not very prime ministerial.
Heather StewartWhat we
learned PM
ready to play
blame game
No deal
Corbyn would
back general
election call
two-thirds majority in the Commons
to call a general election before the
next one is due in 2022.
Corbyn will host a meeting of
opposition leaders and other senior
parliamentarians today, a week before
MPs return to Westminster, as he seeks
to put himself at the forefront of eff orts
to stop no deal.
Nick Boles, the former Conservative
MP involved in cross-party eff orts to
fi nd a Brexit compromise, declined an
invitation to attend. He wrote to Cor-
byn urging him to “declare publicly
that you will not facilitate an election
before an extension of article 50 has
been secured and a no-deal Brexit has
been averted ”.
Anna Soubry, the leader of the
breakaway Independent Group for
Change, who will attend today’s meet-
ing, said she would “absolutely not
support” a general election.
Divisions have increasingly
appeared among MPs committed
to preventing no deal. The Lib Dem
leader, Jo Swinson, sparked a row with
Labour this month when she argued
that if he won a vote of no confi dence,
Corbyn should cede leadership of a
caretaker government to another sen-
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