Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday he’d made “a good deal of progress” in his negotiations with the European Union, and was “cautiously optimistic” of cutting a Brexit deal.
“We are working incredibly hard to get a deal. There is the rough shape of the deal to be done,” he said after a speech in south Yorkshire that was interrupted by a heckler wondering why he was not with members of Parliament in Westminster fixing the Brexit “mess.”
“As some of you may have seen, I myself have been to talk to various other EU leaders particularly in Germany, in France and in Ireland, where we made a good deal of progress,” Johnson continued.
The UK prime minister and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will also hold face-to-face talks next week in a bid to break the impasse.
The meeting comes as lower-level Brexit negotiations produced few signs of progress as the Oct. 31 deadline for Britain’s departure from the EU looms.
The key stumbling block remains the so-called Irish backstop, a maneuver to prevent both sides from putting in a hard border between Ireland, which is in the EU, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.
British officials fear the backstop could keep Britain tied to EU rules and regulations even after it withdraws from the bloc.
With concerns about the social and economic costs of a “no-deal” Brexit rising, Britain’s Parliament — which Johnson suspended in a move that a court called illegal — has passed a law saying the prime minister must seek an extension to the Brexit deadline if no deal is reached by mid-October.
Johnson has indicated he will not do so, insisting Britain will leave the EU on Oct. 31 even without a divorce deal.
The British government’s own assessment suggests an abrupt departure from the EU’s single market without an agreement risks severe economic problems and possible food and medicine shortages in Britain.
With Post wires