Johnson says Brexit deal unlikely and UK can easily cope with disorderly exit
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the likelihood of an exit deal was “touch and go” but said that country could easily cope with no-deal Brexit.
He claimed during the G7 summit in Biarritz that in the case of a no-deal Brexit, EU leaders will be blamed for their “obduracy” and that the UK could keep much of the £39bn settlement.
“If we come out without an agreement it is certainly true that the £39bn is no 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 fact of reality.”
“I think we can get through this, this is a great, great country, the UK, we can easily cope with a no-deal scenario,” Johnson insisted.
Johnson said food and medicine shortages were “highly unlikely” and added that preparations for no deal were being ramped up to help secure an agreement, but also “so that if and when we are forced by the obduracy by our European friends to come out on 31 October without a deal that things are as smooth as they can possibly be”.
Johnson also claimed recently that the chances of renegotiating Britain’s exit had improved after his trips to Berlin and Paris. “In the last few days there has been a change of mood in the EU,” he said.
But in a separate interview he said that it was “touch and go” whether a deal could be reached in time.
“It all depends on our EU friends and partners. I think in the last few days there has been a dawning realisation in Brussels and other European capitals what the shape of the problem is for the UK,” he said.