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Boris Johnson will wrap up the Conservative party conference in Manchester later this morning with the traditional leader’s keynote speech. This week he has sounded desperate to talk about almost anything other than Brexit, and the Tories have been meticulously preparing a domestic policy agenda intended to neutralise Labour attack lines ahead of a general election. (They have even been banging on about bus services, which must be a first for any Conservative party conference – a belated recognition that Jeremy Corbyn has correctly identified this as an issue that is very important to voters outside London.) But the speech coincides with the latest Brexit talks with the EU coming to a head, with the government expected this afternoon to publish its plan for an alternative to the backstop.
As we report in our overnight story, the plan seems to involve Northern Ireland staying under EU single market regulations for agri-food and manufactured goods until at least 2025, but not in the customs union. Here is our story.
The Telegraph’s Europe editor, Peter Foster, broke the story with details of what is on offer last night. Number 10 has disputed some details of his report, but not the broad thrust of it. He has a Twitter thread, starting here, explaining what is on offer.
Peter Foster
(@pmdfoster)EXC: Full readout of @BorisJohnson #Brexit deal that was briefed to EU capitals today – it’s extraordinary – tl;dr “Two borders, for four years.”
Story here:https://t.co/Puj8YUZHXi
Full gut, section by section, here:https://t.co/L3elB99fpa
1/Thread
How will the EU respond? We have not had a definitive answer yet, but the early briefing suggests the reaction will be chilly. These are from the BBC’s Europe editor, Katya Adler.
katya adler
(@BBCkatyaadler)EU bristling at government ‘take it or leave it’ attitude ahead of submitting proposals on how to replace the backstop. Senior diplomat:”How can a country say it’s leaving EU, ask Brussels for a deal on way out and then try to threaten the EU into compromising its principles”/1
katya adler
(@BBCkatyaadler)EU position is that it has not seen hint of anything they’d enter negotiating tunnel for yet (idea of customs between NIreland and Ireland a huge alarm bell for EU) bc they’d have to be sure there was something concrete in front of them that COULD shape up into a deal BUT /2
katya adler
(@BBCkatyaadler)EU will be careful not to rubbish Johnson’s proposals entirely (while critical they may speak of a ‘basis’ for discussion) bc Brussels needs to try to find deal – needs to be seen to try .. /3
katya adler
(@BBCkatyaadler)Senior EU source tells me: chance of deal by mid October EU summit: none
Chance of deal by end of month: doubtful /4
katya adler
(@BBCkatyaadler)EU diplomat: “The more you leave the backstop text, the more EU wants legal precision from UK .. exploring all eventualities in the future, ‘explore every corner’” The EU view is: there’s not enough time .. unless there’s another extension /5
katya adler
(@BBCkatyaadler)Though EU hearts sink at the prospect of Brexit process going on and on.. /6
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: The conference opens with a session on strengthening the union, with contributions from Julian Smith, the Northern Ireland secretary, Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, and Alun Cairns, the Welsh secretary.
10.45am: A session on women in politics.
11.35am: Boris Johnson’s speech to the conference.
12pm: Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, faces Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, at PMQs.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web, although I will be focusing mostly on Brexit and Boris Johnson’s speech. I plan to publish a summary when I wrap up.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
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