Brexit deal still possible
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his cabinet yesterday that a Brexit deal was still possible but that there was significant work to be done to reach one, a spokeswoman from his office said in a statement.
“The Prime Minister updated Cabinet on the current progress being made in ongoing Brexit negotiations, reiterating that a pathway to a deal could be seen but that there is still a significant amount of work to get there and we must remain prepared to leave on October 31,” the spokeswoman said.
EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a summit held under the pressures of the October 31 Brexit deadline just two weeks away.
They would ideally like to have a full proposal to vote on by then.
But the sides are trying to achieve in a few days what they had failed to in the more than three years since Britons first voted to leave the European Union after nearly 50 years.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to discuss the available options with French President Emmanuel Macron late yesterday.
European officials said the bloc’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will also brief EU ambassadors on the state of play, reported AFP.
The few details that have leaked out suggest a compromise around the contentious Irish border issue that keeps Britain’s Northern Ireland partially aligned with EU customs rules.
Whether such a fudge suits both Brussels and the more ardent Brexit backers in parliament who must still approve a deal should become clearer in the coming days.
Johnson rose to power in July on a promise not to extend Brexit for a third time -- even for a few weeks.
Breaking that pledge could come back to haunt him in an early general election that most predict for the coming months.
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