Boris Johnson is set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin later today, where he is expected to reiterate his call for the backstop plan to be scrapped.
Johnson has said the arrangement to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland is “anti-democratic” and must be removed to secure a Brexit deal. Johnson is also expected to tell Merkel the EU should not make the mistake of believing Parliament could somehow block the UK from leaving on the 31 October deadline.
But the EU has rejected the possibility of any changes to the backstop. Johnson said the EU’s response to his demands was “a bit negative”.
However, he said he would enter Brexit talks with “a lot of oomph” and there was “a real sense that something needs to be done” with the backstop.
“We can’t get it through Parliament as it is,” he added.
Merkel said a solution could be found to the Irish border issue that meant the backstop would not be needed – but indicated there would be no change to the withdrawal agreement.
On Tuesday, EU Council President Donald Tusk again made clear the bloc would not cave in to Johnson’s demand to scrap the so-called Irish border backstop plan, which would keep Britain in the European customs union if no trade deal is signed.
Johnson’s meeting with the German chancellor is the first in a series of talks with EU leaders.
On his first foreign visit since taking office, he will seek to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and on Thursday French President Emmanuel Macron, to renegotiate elements of the UK’s impending divorce from the European Union — something the EU leaders have already ruled out.
Then, at the weekend, all three will meet US President Donald Trump, a vocal supporter of Brexit and its champion Johnson, and the leaders of Canada, Italy and Japan at a G7 summit in the French seaside resort of Biarritz.
