Boris Johnson faces empty podium moment

Boris Johnson is mocked by Luxembourg PM after having to abandon joint press conference.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel speaks to the media next to to Boris Johnson’s empty podium. Picture: Getty Images.

Boris Johnson has been forced to abandon a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, who used his solo appearance to mock the British PM and accuse him of holding Europeans’ future hostage.

Mr Johnson, who earlier met European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Luxembourg, refused to attend the press conference because of noisy protests by pro-Remain supporters.

It was an embarrassing end to what had largely been a positive day of talks, although Mr Juncker refused to compromise on Brexit, despite Mr Johnson’s insistence the alternative is for Britain to leave the EU on October 31 with no deal. However both sides agreed to speed up Brexit negotiations, with talks expected to continue daily.

Boris Johnson arrive for a meeting with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. Picture; Getty Images.

A feisty Mr Johnson said after the eagerly awaited meeting that he would “uphold the constitution and uphold the (British) law’’ but the country would come out on October 31. Just how the British Prime Minister would circumvent the parliamentary law that requires him to ask for a Brexit extension to avoid a no-deal Brexit is not clear.

“I see no point whatever in staying on in the EU beyond 31 October and we’re going to come out,’’ Mr Johnson told the BBC. “And actually that is what our friends and partners in the EU would like too. And I think that they’ve had a bellyful of all this stuff.

”You know they want to develop a new relationship with the UK. “They’re fed up with these endless negotiations, endless delays.

“And by the way, all this mumbo jumbo about how parliament is being deprived of the opportunity to scrutinise Brexit. What a load of claptrap.’’

After Mr Johnson’s ‘empty podium’ moment, Downing Street said they had asked for the press conference to he held elsewhere and Mr Johnson spoke to reporters inside, but Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel wanted to make a statement outside by himself.

“Our people need to know what is going to happen to them in six weeks’ time. They need clarity, they need certainty and they need stability,” he said, in a reference to the protesters.

“You can’t hold their future hostage for party political gains,” Mr Bettel told reporters in an extraordinary lapse of diplomatic protocol.

“For me I just have one Withdrawal Agreement on the table and it’s the one from last year,’’ Mr Bettel said, saying the British were to blame because they didn’t know how to get out of the situation.

“There are no changes. There are no concrete proposals for the moment on the table. And I won’t give an agreement to ideas. We need written proposals and the time is ticking.”

Mr Bettel warned: “We won’t accept any agreement that goes against a single market, that will be against the Good Friday Agreement.”

He said: “This Brexit it’s not my choice.’’

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, said that by refusing to appear with Mr Bettel., Mr Johnson had gone “from Incredible Hulk to Incredible Sulk” - a reference to the PM’s claim over the weekend that the UK would escape from the EU “like the Hulk”.

Mr Johnson said the country was spending £1bn a month for the privilege of remaining in the EU.

“What is the point?’’ he questioned. “The people of this country want us to get on and leave the EU and deliver on the mandate of the people.

“And staying in costs £250m a week, which is roughly the same as what it would cost to build a new hospital every week.’’

Mr Johnson said the European Commission and Mr Juncker — who claimed not to have yet seen “legally operational proposals” to the Irish backstop question — still wanted a deal.