UK - Politika i društvo

BREAKING: Chair of ERG @SteveBakerHW leaves Downing Street after 80 mins saying they’ve had “very constructive talks with the government... I am optimistic that it is possible to reach a tolerable deal that I am able to vote for”. ERG are on board as it stands.

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) October 15, 2019

DUP will not back a Brexit deal if Boris Johnson makes more concessions to the EU. Source tells me: "We will not be going more or giving more. Difficult times ahead.”https://t.co/0ZoSgvKdPl

— Arj Singh (@singharj) October 15, 2019

Germany has warned that Brexit will need to be delayed until next year even if European Union and British negotiators agree a new deal over the next 12 hours https://t.co/ZegKV7Etpf

— The Times (@thetimes) October 15, 2019

Reports firming that Johnson, under pressure of EU deadline, is doing a major climbdown on Brexit, to allow Northern Ireland to remain inside the Customs Union. What it means

1/ The No Deal bluster produced nothing. Zilch. Diddly Squat...

2/ Johnson and Cummings are genuinely terrified of the Benn Act forcing them into an extension of Article 50 - so they are preparing their own extension on the pretext of having to get this deal thru Parliament...

3/ Whether Johnson gets this deal thru Parliament or not (and I doubt it) ... he is taking a major step towards a United Ireland. Those of us who've supported that, on the basis of cross-community consent, should register that...

4/ If there is still no commitment to a level playing field with the EU single market, then a) I doubt the EU27 can sign the deal b) no Labour MP can back it. However...

5/ If the deal retains the possibility of Britain remaining aligned to the Single Market, I cannot see the ERG backing it either...

6/ Once the text is public, and the A50 extension agreed, there is no further need for Labour/SNP/PC/G to keep on the hook - the opposition needs to collapse the government with a VONC right after the Queen's Speech is defeated...

7/ Never mind if the dithering Tories and the Libdem don't want a Corbyn-led minority government. Let them live with the consequences of allowing Johnson to stay PM during the election...

8/ However the preferred route must still be an interim government. If there is a Johnson deal, that government could add a Kyle-Wilson amendment ITSELF, calling a referendum on Johnson's deal versus Remain...

9/ To reiterate: any Labour MP who walks thru the lobby with this racist liar, on the grounds of "any deal is better", needs to have the whip withdrawn and a new candidate selected immediately.

10/ Awaiting the text but, in summary, Johnson has retreated further than Theresa May and collapsed like a 6th form soufflé because - of his own making - he imploded his own party and lost control of Parliament. More later...

Excl: Big split opens up among Tory Eurosceptics over whether to back Boris’s Brexit deal, as Owen Paterson brands it “absurd” and “unacceptable”. Iain Duncan-Smith also said to have “exploded” at No10 officials.https://t.co/tJoBZ0lk0N

— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) October 15, 2019

EU-UK deal pretty much done, awaits UK government approval - EU sources

OCTOBER 16, 2019 / 6:02 PM

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A tentative, technical Brexit deal between the European Union and Britain was largely ready in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon and awaited an “overall backing” but the government in London, said sources with bloc.

“The level playing field and customs are agreed. Consent by the Northern Irish assembly every four years,” said an EU official.

An EU diplomat confirmed that was the case, with just some haggling remaining on VAT arrangements.

“Plus an overall backing from the British government is needed to launch it all,” the person said.

Boris Johnson tells Tory MPs he's 'close to Everest summit' on Brexit deal 'but it's shrouded in mist'

Written by: Alain Tolhurst Posted On: 16th October 2019

Boris Johnson has told Tory MPs he is “close to the summit” on a Brexit deal but it “is still shrouded in mist”.

The Prime Minister gave an update to the backbench 1922 Committee in Parliament claiming he is close to getting an agreement with Brussels ahead of tomorrow’s crunch EU summit.

However he failed to provide any detail to his fellow Conservatives, with hard-line Brexiteers saying they will need to see the legal text before voting in favour of it.

Mr Johnson made a flying visit to the committee, spending less than five minutes updating colleagues on the progress in the talks, with MPs describing it afterwards as “vintage Boris”.

One MP said the PM told them: “We’re not quite at the summit, we’re at the Hillary step on the way up Mount Everest, the summit is not far, but at the moment it is still shrouded in mist.”

The Hillary step was known as the most technically difficult part of climbing the world’s tallest mountain, but the nearly vertical rock face close to the peak was destroyed by an earthquake in 2015.

The PM has been having a number of meetings with the DUP and the ERG group of Tory Eurosceptics as he tries to win the backing of MPs for a deal.

He is expected to travel to Brussels on Thursday to get it ratified by the other 27 EU countries before bringing it back for a vote in Parliament on Saturday.

The Government has tabled a motion for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to sit from 9.30am till 2pm, the first weekend sitting since the Falklands War in 1982.

He will need the support of the ERG for any deal to pass, but its chairman Steve Baker said their votes were not guaranteed yet.

“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves until there’s a legal text we’re not going to make a decision,” Mr Baker told reporters outside the 1922 meeting.

“I’m afraid we’ve come this far, Eurosceptics always pay attention to meticulous, tedious analysis of the detail of legal texts - and that’s what we’re going to do.”

He added: “If I’m not shown the legal text I will vote no.”

That was echoed by its deputy chair Mark Francois and another leading Brexiteers Bernard Jenkin and Iain Duncan Smith.

“You’d need a legal text to get it through. We don’t know what it is,” Mr Duncan Smith told journalists of the deal.

“We’re on board until we know it’s time to climb off the board.”

Gargantua wrote:DUP je i zvanično odbio da podrži Bojov predlog (kakav god da je trenutno).

“If the DUP are happy, it’s not for us to gainsay” @SteveBakerHW confirms that the ERG will take their lead from the DUP on Northern Ireland. #Peston pic.twitter.com/RpQri2fY24

— Peston (@itvpeston) October 16, 2019

A Brexit deal has been agreed between UK and EU negotiating teams before a meeting of European leaders in Brussels.
The two sides have been working on the legal text of a deal, but it will still need the approval of both the UK and European parliaments.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: "We've got a great new deal that takes back control."

Jeremy Corbyn slams new Brexit deal as "worse than Theresa May's" as Labour refuse to back it.

...

Mr Corbyn, who is in Brussels for a meeting of the Party of European Socialists, hit out at the proposals on Northern Ireland.

He said: "This is a day where the Prime Minister seems to have made a deal with the European Union which doesn't give us the complete freedom of movement between Britain and Ireland because it creates a customs union border down the Irish Sea.

"As it stands we cannot support this deal.

"Also it is unclear whether it has the support of his allies in the DUP, or indeed many of his allies on his own backbenches."

"From what we know, it seems the Prime Minister has negotiated an even worse deal than Theresa May's, which was overwhelmingly rejected."

He added: “These proposals risk triggering a race to the bottom on rights and protections: putting food safety at risk, cutting environmental standards and workers’ rights, and opening up our NHS to a takeover by US private corporations.

“This sell out deal won’t bring the country together and should be rejected.

"The best way to get Brexit sorted is to give the people the final say in a public vote.”

NEW: Juncker seems to be ruling out an extension to process.
Saying there is no need to prolong Brexit beyond Oct 31 because they have a deal.

But when ask even if Parliament votes against it - he says he is not in charge of Westminster.

— Darren McCaffrey (@DarrenEuronews) October 17, 2019

Draft #EUCO conclusions - if House of Commons agrees, Brexit will be done on time. No talks of extension - or even an extra summit https://t.co/gWrqXbfTug pic.twitter.com/75FjOR94NY

— Bruno Waterfield (@BrunoBrussels) October 17, 2019

Jean-Claude Juncker: "There will be no prolongation. We have concluded the deal and so there is not an argument for the delay. It has to be done now."#BrexitDealhttps://t.co/Zgfv6Z04ZK pic.twitter.com/fS3GnaAJf9

— euronews (@euronews) October 17, 2019

Gargantua wrote:Ovo je pritisak na ostale, pre svega na mekane breksitovce da podrže dogovor. Odsustvo današnjeg dogovora EU o produžetku znači i to da će se jaaako teško ponovo sastati zbog toga. Prihvatanje dila ili no dil, tako sada izgleda.