Boris Johnson says his Brexit plan will not have checks at Irish border

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Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK opposition Labour Party, has said he does not think the Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan will get EU support, claiming it is worse than the deal negotiated by former Prime Minister Theresa May.

“It’s worse than Theresa May’s deal,” he told reporters. “I can’t see it getting support that he thinks it will get and it will take us into a regime in Britain of deregulation, of undercutting, and I think also undermining the Good Friday agreement.”

The Labour Leader also said the proposal is “very unspecific on how the Good Friday agreement can be upheld.”

Jeremy Corbyn, opposition Labour Party leader

The 1998 Good Friday agreement ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. Its requirement that there be no hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland has been a major sticking point in the Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU.

Corbyn added: “I’m sure he knows full well that what he’s put forward is unlikely to be agreed. What he hasn’t acknowledged is that he has a duty under the EU (No 2) Act, the act of parliament, that requires him to apply for an extension in the event of no agreement being reached.” 

The European Commission has said that while Boris Johnson’s new proposal offers some “positive advances,” “there are still some problematic points that will need further work in the coming days.”

The Commission has released a statement following a phone call between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker.

It said:

The Commission said that the “delicate balance struck by the Good Friday Agreement must be preserved.” The 1998 peace deal that ended the decades-long conflict that claimed the lives of 3,000 people states there must not be any physical infrastructure at the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

The statement also said:

The statement stressed the “EU wants a deal.”

“We remain united and ready to work 24/7 to make this happen – as we have been for over three years now,” it said.

It added that meetings between the UK and EU are expected to take place over the coming days.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit party and the loudest of all Brexiteers, has added his two cents to the debate about Boris Johnson’s new proposals.

Farage is hoping that some disillusioned Brexit-supporting Conservative voters will switch to the Brexit Party in the next general election.

On Wednesday, he delivered a stark rebuke to Johnson’s plan, saying it provides no guarantee the UK will leave the customs union.

The leaders of British opposition parties have expressed doubts that Boris Johnson’s new Brexit proposals will go down well in Brussels.

Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the SNP, said she believes the plan might have been designed to fail.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn told Sky the new plan was “not acceptable” and “worse” than what Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May proposed.

Boris Johnson desperately needs to sell his proposal to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Northern Irish party that was propping up his government in Parliament until he lost his majority last month.

The DUP’s main purpose is keeping Northern Ireland inside the United Kingdom. It campaigned for Brexit, but its members have since said that keeping the union together is more important than leaving the EU.

In the letter, Johnson appears to hint his proposal will come with a sweetener for the DUP:

The letter also says that Northern Ireland will have a say in how the proposal will work in practice:

The DUP is used to getting sweet deals. Boris Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May struck a “confidence and supply agreement” with the party, promising Northern Ireland £1 billion ($1.2 billion) in funding in exchange for the 10 MPs from Northern Ireland supporting her minority government.

That deal is set to expire at the end of this Parliament.

DUP indicated on Wednesday it would back the proposal. In a statement, it said the plan is consistent with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, at the Conservative Party Conference.

The Brexit proposal put forward by Boris Johnson to the EU “does not look promising so far from what we have heard,” according to the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

Varadkar said Johnson needs to “listen to the people of Northern Ireland, who did not vote for Brexit” and do not want physical checks.

Varadkar said he will speak to Johnson later Wednesday.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar isn't too impressed with the new proposal.

Here is the first part of the letter that Boris Johnson sent to the EU on Wednesday:

Boris Johnson has made a new offer to the EU.

Read the full letter here.

Johnson’s proposal envisions Northern Ireland being part of the UK customs territory after Brexit.

That would keep it out of the EU single market after the transition period.

“It has always been a fundamental point for this Government that the UK will leave the EU customs union at the end of the transition period. We must do so whole and entire. Control of trade policy is fundamental to our future vision.”

The letter sent to the EU on Wednesday is fairly mellow compared to what some British media expected based on the leaks and Boris Johnson’s conference speech.

Before the letter was published, the proposal was largely framed as “the final offer” and “take it or leave it” proposition.

But nowhere in the letter does Johnson actually suggest this is his final offer. He also doesn’t threaten to take the UK out of the EU without a deal should Brussels reject his plan.

In fact, he says the proposal should “provide basis for rapid negotiations” and “the broad landing zone in which I believe a deal can begin to take shape.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the 27 remaining EU member states would look at the UK Brexit proposals together and evaluate them.

“We are staying together as 27 and we trust Michel Barnier [the EU negotiator],” Merkel said at a joint news conference with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Berlin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte met in Berlin on Wednesday.

The main hurdle in the Brexit negotiations boils down to a single issue: the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, which will remain an EU member.

A 1998 peace agreement, called the Good Friday Agreement, explicitly prohibits any physical checks at the border. The EU wants to safeguard this provision – and its solution is the so-called “Brexit backstop.” Johnson’s government hates that clause and wants to ditch it.

In the letter sent to the EU leaders, Johnson concedes that a “very small number of physical checks” will be needed.

However, he proposed these checks could take place “at traders’ premises or other points along the supply chain.”

Boris Johnson’s letter to EU leaders has just been released.

It outlines the new proposals, which it says is fully compatible with the Good Friday Agreement.

An EU diplomat, who has seen Boris Johnson’s reported new Brexit plan, told CNN the UK will need to convince the EU why it “should entertain this proposal.”

The diplomat said:

Boris Johnson has set the UK on course for a Brexit showdown. 

Giving the keynote speech to his Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester, England, the British Prime Minister told a packed conference hall that deal or no deal, the UK is “coming out of the EU on October 31, come what may.”

So far, so predictable – and the audience of party activists and lawmaker duly lapped it up. Johnson, after all, is the man who will “get Brexit done.”

Boris Johnson pictured during the 2016 referendum campaign in front of the Brexit campaign bus sporting the infamous slogan.

But his language on Britain’s broader relationship with Europe was markedly softer.  “This is not an anti-European party and it is not an anti-European country. We love Europe,” he said. The response from the conference hall was decidedly muted. “Well, I do, anyway,” Johnson muttered. 

Whatever the reaction to Johnson in Manchester, it doesn’t change the scale of the challenge he faces both in Westminster and Brussels.

Read the full analysis here.

CNN’s Nina Dos Santos has surveyed the mood at the Conservative Party conference following Boris Johnson’s speech.

Here is a selection of reaction from delegates:  

“Inspiring, it gave me a lot of hope … because I think we might just get out of Europe.

“Barnstorming, fabulous and especially directed at the electorate, at the country and the EU.” 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves the conference hall with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds.

“I think it was great and I just hope the EU was listening because we love Europe and we want to stay part of it. But we don’t want to be part of the EU and I thought it was brilliant.”

“Entertaining, intelligent, fairly factual. So this is what people want to hear.”

“The room was absolutely passionate – he electrified the room. Everyone is firmly behind Boris as leader.”

British businesses appealed for the UK Prime Minister to reach a Brexit deal with the EU, saying companies are not ready to cope with a no-deal exit.

Boris Johnson insisted again on Wednesday that Brexit will happen at the end of the month, with or without a deal.

In reaction, Adam Marshall, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said:

Businesses have warned no-deal Brexit would hurt them.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has become the first black MP to represent their party at Prime Minister’s Questions.

The debating chamber was somewhat depleted because most Conservative MPs are in Manchester for their party’s conference.

Diane Abbott pictured in London last week.

It is customary for Parliament to be suspended for the conference season. However, this year’s suspension became highly controversial after the government insisted Parliament would be shut for five weeks just before Brexit.

The Supreme Court ruled the prorogation unlawful and the lawmakers returned to work.

And when the government asked for Parliament to be suspended for the Conservative Conference, Parliament refused.

Boris Johnson’s first speech as Prime Minister to his Conservative party faithful went down well enough. But it might have left supporters who have wanted him to lead their party for years feeling a little flat. 

In some respects, it was classic Johnson.

The UK will leave the EU on October 31, “come what may.”

In many ways, the speech was "classic Johnson."

There were spending pledges for his domestic audience and attacks on the leader of the opposition Labour party as “fratricidal anti-Semitic Marxists.”

It was a feel-good speech, rather than a policy heavy speech.

Johnson played up the prospect of leaving without a deal – something that goes down well with the Conservative party membership. But he also said that “this is not an anti-European party and it is not an anti-European country. We love Europe. We are European.”

This was somewhat less appreciated by the membership than the revelation that Johnson’s mother voted for Brexit. 

Johnson has on the whole had a good first conference as leader. However, one thing that scares the Brexit-supporting party membership is whether Johnson will sell them out when the going gets tough. 

This speech will have done little to reassure them that Johnson is 100% on their side.