(^2) The Mail on Sunday September 1 • 2019
One small step for Boris,
one giant leap for Brexit
Merkel praises PM, but
leaked minutes show
clock is ticking on deal
ANGELA MErkEL has been
impressed by Boris Johnson’s
‘professional’ approach as
Prime Minister, but she has
made clear to him that he needs to
‘move rapidly’ to secure a new
Brexit deal, according to leaked
EU minutes seen by The Mail
on Sunday.
British officials who met their
German counterparts in Brussels
on Thursday were told that the
German Chancellor regarded her
first encounter with Mr Johnson
in the run-up to last weekend’s G
summit in Biarritz as ‘constructive
and professional’.
According to the minutes of the
meeting, Uk negotiators have
been told that Ms Merkel’s
remarks during the meeting that
Mr Johnson had ‘30 days’ to sort
out a new Brexit deal was ‘not
fixed’ – and a new deal was not
expected before the next EU
summit on October 17. ‘The
By Glen Owen
POLITICAL EDITOR
German Government is clear that
things can and need to move
rapidly,’ the minutes say.
Last week, Mr Johnson said
it was time to ‘step up the tempo’
in the talks and announced that
senior aides from both sides
will meet twice a week throughout
September – with the possibility
of additional meetings – in
the hope of reaching a new
Brexit agreement.
But the minutes of the meeting
add: ‘Merkel still needs facts, and
the German Government, as well
as the rest of the EU, are
waiting for concrete proposals
from Johnson.
‘Once again the ball is in the
Uk Government’s court.’
However, the meeting also
concluded that Brussels had
enjoyed ‘constructive’ meetings
with David Frost, Mr Johnson’s
chief negotiator for exiting the
EU. The fact that Mr Frost had
travelled to Brussels to meet
the Commission last week was
seen as ‘a positive sign’.
Ms Merkel’s officials made clear
in the meeting that there
could be no new position from
the EU until there was a fresh
proposal from the Uk, although
the British officials noted: ‘It is
very clear [from the EU] that
cancelling the backstop is not
possible, but they seem open to
discuss further measures.’
It added: ‘No major
breakthrough is expected
before the European Council
on October 17.’
The German officials also said
that, with EU member states
meeting in the coming days to
discuss ‘preparedness levels’
for a No Deal Brexit, they
were expecting ‘updates on
preparedness directives’
from the European Commission
in coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the French
authorities will this week start
a month-long ‘No Deal trial’
at Calais, which senior Cabinet
Minister Michael Gove is
expected to witness.
The trial will simulate ‘No
Deal checks’ and new paperwork
regimes. A source involved in the
preparations said the French
government had been conscious
that they had halted their
preparations after former
Prime Minister Theresa May
cancelled the Uk’s original exit
day in March.
‘The French are starting to ramp
it up again now,’ said the source.
‘They feel that they have planned
for more or less every eventuality,
but have concluded that they can’t
mitigate every risk.’
deemed to be under control then it
shows amber or green.
During the Apollo programme,
which ran from 1961 to 1972, the
most senior Nasa scientists each
had simultaneous access to the
technical preparations.
Mr Johnson’s allies say the dash
board, run by senior aide Oliver
Lewis, demonstrates how serious
the Prime Minister is about prepar
ing the country for No Deal.
But it could also be seen as a pub
lic relations move designed to
spook Brussels into ripping up its
Brexit deal containing the hated
Northern Irish backstop.
In a blog entry posted online in
response and this means a radically
different organisation of the UK
negotiating team.
‘The challenge is not far short of
the political equivalent of the Apollo
programme and it needs similarly
imaginative management.
‘Everybody in a large organisa
tion must understand as much
about the goals and plans as pos
sible. Whitehall now works on
opposite principles: I doubt a
single department has proper
orientation across most of the
organisation, never mind a whole
government... there must be an
overall approach in which the most
important elements fit together,
including in policy, management,
and communications.
‘Mr Mueller turned the failing
N a s a b u r e a u c r a c y i n t o a n
organisation that could put man
on the Moon’.
Echoing Mr Cummings, Mr John
son wrote a few days before becom
ing Prime Minister that the 1969
Moon landing proved that he will
be able to deliver Brexit by Octo
ber 31. He said that a ‘sense of mis
sion’ akin to that of the Nasa project
was all that was needed to take
Britain out of the EU on time.
Last night, a senior Government
source told The Mail on Sunday:
‘Kennedy was serious about getting
to the Moon and we are serious
about achieving Brexit by any
means necessary.
‘The administrative tools that
made the Moon landings happen
will make Brexit happen. Oliver’s
dashboard is a critical tool not only
in preparation for a No Deal Brexit
if necessary, but sending a signal
to Whitehall, the Eurocrats in Brus
sels, and indeed the country, that
this is happening.
‘We are serious, but also that it
will be properly organised and exe
cuted as smoothly as possible.’
2017, before he entered Downing
Street, Mr Cummings said his Brexit
plan was to ‘reengineer institutions’
and land Britain outside of the EU
just ‘like the Apollo mission’.
And he cited the strategy of the
‘brilliant and fearless’ George
Mueller, the American electrical
engineer who headed the Office of
Manned Space Flight from Sep
tember 1963 until December 1969,
five months after Apollo 11’s suc
cessful Moon landing.
Mr Cummings said: ‘You will only
get on top of Brexit if you realise
that leaving the EU is a systems
problem requiring a systems
BORIS JOHNSON’S uncompromising
No Deal strategy is being modelled on Presi
dent John F. Kennedy’s Apollo programme
that landed a man on the Moon, insiders have
told The Mail on Sunday.
Mr Johnson’s chief strategist Dominic Cum
mings – who has long been fascinated by
Nasa’s mastery of space in the 1960s – has
overseen the establishment of a ‘No Deal dash
board’ which can be simultaneously accessed
by nearly 200 Ministers, No 10 staff, senior
special advisers and the toptier mandarins.
The matrix uses a trafficlight system to
track the progress of 347 different ‘actions’
across Government to ensure no problems hit
key issues such as medical supplies, freight
traffic, petrol supply and UK citizens living in
EU countries after Brexit on October 31.
If a sufficient number of the participants
raise a serious alert about one of the actions
then it will flash red, showing a problem that
needs to be dealt with; if the situation is
How the Moon
landings help
No 1 0 prepare
for a No Deal
By Glen Owen
14
MEN ON A MISSION: How Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg might look in Nasa’s Apollo command centre
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