Boris Johnson refuses to meet EU leaders unless they scrap backstop

Boris Johnson is refusing to hold talks with EU leaders until they agree to ditch the Irish backstop.

His official spokeswoman said that though Johnson has made clear to the leaders that he wants a deal, there was no point in face-to-face talks unless Brussels agreed to reopen discussions on the withdrawal agreement.

“The PM has been clear that he wants to meet EU leaders and negotiate, but not to sit down and be told that the EU cannot possibly reopen the withdrawal agreement. And that is the message that he has been giving to leaders when he has spoken to them on the telephone so far.”

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The prime minister’s hardline stance comes despite invitations from the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

The Guardian points out that during a visit to the Trident nuclear base at Faslane in Scotland yesterday, Johnson “painted a more optimistic picture of the prospect for talks”.

During the visit, Johnson said: “We are not aiming for a no-deal Brexit at all. What we want is to get a deal and I’ve had some interesting conversations with our European partners.

“I’ve talked to Jean-Claude [Juncker] and Angela Merkel and we’re reaching out today to Leo Varadkar. The feeling is, yes there’s no change in their position, but it’s very, very positive.

“I want us to engage, to hold out the hand, to go the extra mile, extra thousand miles and what we want to do is make it absolutely clear that the backstop is no good. It's dead, it's got to go. The withdrawal agreement is dead, it's got to go.“

Although he repteated that he “can’t accept the backstop” and that “the withdrawal agreement as it stands is dead,” he believes there is “ample scope to do a new deal and a better deal”.

According to The Guardian this means that his “underlying position” is that “No 10 is now proceeding towards a no-deal Brexit unless EU leaders change their minds about not reopening the withdrawal agreement”.

This puts the ball in the court of EU leaders to make the next move and dashes the expectations of some that the prime minister will go on a “whistlestop diplomatic tour” of European capitals to propose an alternative to the backstop.

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that two committees have been set up as the UK government intensifies preparations for a possible no-deal exit, including a “daily operations committee” of senior ministers.