TUESDAY 20 AUGUST 2019Johnson reiterates demand for
EU to scrap backstop
PM wrote 4-page letter to EU Council president Donald Tusk (Getty)
ASHLEY COWBURN
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Boris Johnson has been accused of having “no negotiating strategy” after repeating his Brexit demand for
the Irish backstop to be scrapped in his first letter to Donald Tusk.
Just hours after one EU leader said the withdrawal agreement “cannot be reopened”, the prime minister
described the deal negotiated by Theresa May’s government as “unviable”. Mr Johnson said the problems
with the backstop – the bloc’s insurance policy to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland – “run much
deeper than the simple political reality that it has three times been rejected” by the Commons.