Page 14 Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 27, 2019PM: EU just wa
Mwah! Melania improves her relations
...as he warns
rebels they
can’t stop us
leaving on
October 31
LEANING in to kiss Canadian PM
Justin Trudeau, Melania Trump
seems oblivious to her glum-lookinghusband. The cosy greeting, which
went viral on Twitter, happened at
the G7 leaders’ farewell gatheringwhere Mr Trudeau also made a
favourable impression on Angela
Merkel, rightBORIS Johnson last night said
he believed the EU now just
wanted to get Brexit done as he
sent British officials back to
Brussels to strike a new deal.
After meeting European leaders at
the G7 summit in Biarritz this week-
end, the Prime Minister said he was
increasingly hopeful that the country
would leave the EU on October 31
with an agreement.
But Mr Johnson also warned Tory
rebels and opposition MPs that they
were ‘very wrong’ if they thought they
could stop No Deal and he told EU lead-
ers that the efforts to derail his Brexit
plans were doomed to fail.
At a press conference yesterday, Mr
Johnson said he believed that both the
British people and EU were ‘yearning’
for Brexit to finally happen.
Asked about plots by MPs to thwart
his plan, the Prime Minister said: ‘I think
it’s the job of everybody in Parliament to
get this thing done.
‘I think it’s what the people want. I alsoFrom John Stevens
Deputy Political Editor in Biarritzthink, by the way, it’s what our friends
and partners on the other side of the
Channel want – they want it over.’
Mr Johnson said he was ‘marginally
more optimistic’ about getting a new
deal following a weekend of talks but
said the willingness of the EU to get rid
of the Irish backstop was crucial.
He said: ‘I think that our German‘EU friends listened
very carefully’friends and our French friends
have certainly listened very care-
fully to what we have had to say.
‘It all depends on how seriously
they wish to get a deal.’
British officials will head to Brus-
sels in the next few days to discuss
ideas on what could replace the
backstop. Mr Johnson believes
technological solutions could be
used to avoid a hard border with
Ireland but details have not beenforthcoming. Yesterday, he again
refused to spell out alternatives.
The Prime Minister is also due to
fly to Dublin for talks with Irish
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
The discussions in Brussels will
be led by Mr Johnson’s EU emis-
sary David Frost. No 10 believes a
new deal is unlikely to be struck
until a European Council summit
on October 17 and 18. Yesterday, asenior British official said Parlia-
ment could sit around the clock if
an agreement was reached to pass
the necessary legislation in time.
And the Eurasia Group, a firm of
analysts with close links to Brus-
sels, said the EU hopes of getting a
deal had risen in recent days.
It quoted a senior EU official as
saying: ‘Before Boris came, our
common assessment was that NoDeal was the baseline. After the
trip, I still believe No Deal is possi-
ble, but I now believe Boris wants
a deal. The odds are still more on
No Deal than deal, but we shouldn’t
over-egg it.’ But they warned if
there was a deal ‘it will only come
at five minutes to midnight’.
In a further boost for Mr John-
son, Australian prime minister
Scott Morrison told him hebelieved they could strike a trade
deal within a year.
He said: ‘We are going to have a
great relationship – despite his
cricket sledging, which was very
modest, I have to say.’ At a break-
fast on Sunday, Donald Trump
told Mr Johnson a US-UK trade
deal could be struck by June or
July next year.
Jeremy Corbyn will hold talksthat avoids a No Deal Brexit. Veteran MP
Frank Field, chairman of the work and pen-
sions select committee who campaigned
for Brexit in 2016, said: ‘I support any
means by which we might be able to come
towards a negotiated Brexit, and there-
fore I’m really pleased with what the
assemblies are trying to do.
Archbishop Welby has said a No Deal
Brexit would be ‘not only a political and
practical failure, but a moral one’.
The assembly, it is claimed, would be a
representative group of people, balanced
in terms of gender, background and politi-cal allegiance. They would be selected to
reflect the outcome of the referendum
and range of views on what form Brexit
should take.
It is not clear how the selection process
would work. Those involved would take
part in discussions chaired by the arch-
bishop and hosted by Coventry Cathedral,
a symbol of peace and reconciliation after
it was bombed in the Second World War.
The assembly would be asked to put pro-
posals to Parliament to provide direction
over Brexit and a national reconciliation.
It is understood their deliberations would
be based on the model used in Ireland in
2016 on the abortion issue when 100 citi-zens with a broad range of ages and back-
grounds talked over five weekends.
Asked about Archbishop Welby’s plans at
a press conference, Prime Minister Boris
Johnson said: ‘I got a very nice letter from
the Archbishop.
‘As far as I understand, he wants to bring
the country together and I certainly sup-
port him in that.’
n Mr Johnson will pack the House of Lords
with Brexiteers to tackle the imbalance in
the Remain-packed upper chamber.
Six Brexit-backing peers will be appointed
later this year, with more expected to fol-
low. It is understood that Nigel Farage will
not be among them.THE Archbishop of Canterbury is being
lined up to chair a citizens’ assembly in
efforts to find a way to stop a No Deal
Brexit, it was claimed yesterday.
The Most Reverend Justin Welby, who
voted Remain, is liaising with a cross-party
group of senior MPs over a series of public
meetings. Under the plans, some 100 peo-
ple representing all sides would make rec-
ommendations on Brexit.
The assembly would be convened next
month, according to The Times. Last night
Lambeth Palace did not deny the claims.
Senior MPs on both sides of the debate
have backed the initiative in the hope that
such talks would lead to support for a planBy Larisa BrownBATTLE FOR BREXIT
Welby ‘to lead group f ighting No Deal’