We won’t bow to EU rules to get Brexit trade deal, Boris Johnson pledges

Boris Johnson is on a collision course with Brussels when the second phase of Brexit negotiations open.

Boris Johnson meets a supporter's dog at Sedgefield Cricket Club in County Durham, northeast England. Picture: AP

Boris Johnson is on a collision course with Brussels when the second phase of Brexit negotiations open — as a former Downing Street aide warned that the British government is not “match fit” for the talks.

The British Prime Minister will reject calls from EU leaders for his country to accept a “level playing field” on regulations, which would mean the UK adopting many of the same rules as the rest of the bloc even after Brexit.

A senior figure in government dismissed claims that Mr Johnson would use his new majority to abandon Brexiteers in the European Research Group and pursue a softer Brexit. The source said it was “crazy” for people to say Mr Johnson would allow an extension to the transition period, which is due to expire at the end of 2020. “He’s not going to ask for an extension,” the aide said. “There isn’t going to be a level playing field. We are going to be out this year, no ifs or buts.”

EU leaders agreed a joint negotiating position last week in which they want Britain to agree to regulatory alignment in exchange for a tariff-free, quota-free trade deal.

But Mr Johnson’s team made clear that when they outline their demands in February Britain will seek to maintain the ability to set its own rules in key areas, even if it means some tariffs are imposed.

“We don’t want to be in alignment,” the source said. “We want a free-trade deal with as close to zero tariffs as they are happy to do. But if they think we are going to be signing up to stick to their data laws and their procurement rules, that’s not going to happen.”

However, in a warning to the Prime Minister, one of the leading EU experts in the Tory party has urged Mr Johnson to act fast or be outmanoeuvred by Brussels.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Raoul Ruparel, a former Europe adviser to prime minister Theresa May and former Brexit secretary David Davis, said the UK was so busy preparing for no deal earlier this year that not enough has been done to prepare for a free-trade deal. “As it stands, the UK does not appear ‘match fit’ for the next phase of negotiations,” he writes.

He added: “Whitehall is not yet ready to negotiate such a complex and wide-ranging agreement, nor implement it on the ground. There is still time to get ready, but there needs to be a rapid reorganisation of departments and quick decisions on policy.”

While he has not worked for Mr Johnson, Mr Ruparel was the author of a paper that formed the basis of the withdrawal deal in October under which the Northern Ireland backstop was abolished.

In a new report for the Institute for Government think tank, to be published on Monday, Mr Ruparel details five key errors made by Mrs May and warns that Britain must shape the sequencing of the talks or lose out.

EU leaders signalled last week that they wanted to do a skeleton deal on issues that favour them, such as fisheries, but leave key talks on questions such as financial services, which concern the UK, until 2021.

Mr Ruparel wrote that if Mr Johnson is to be successful the UK must “have a clear view of how the negotiations should be structured and argue for it”.

Bernard Jenkin, a leading light in the ERG, said it would be wrong for Mr Johnson to ditch his hard Brexit stance.

“The remain left are now promoting a false idea that the big majority means the ERG can be isolated and ignored. Without the ERG, Theresa May’s Brexit deal would have got through and she would still be PM. The Brexit Party would have been the beneficiary, and the Conservatives would never have won the confidence of the Labour leave voters, which has so fundamentally transformed our party and British politics.”

Michael Heseltine, a leading remain campaigner, admitted over the weekend for the first time: “We’ve lost and we have to accept that.” He said it would be “20 years” and a “different generation” before rejoining became an issue.

The Sunday Times