Boris Johnson wants to change ‘defective’ Brexit withdrawal agreement
The UK is reportedly looking to change the terms of its Brexit withdrawal agreement to fix “unfair defects”.
Much of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal was borrowed from Theresa May’s, which was rejected by UK parliament three times.
The key change he made was in regards to the Northern Ireland backstop.
The Sunday Express reports that a source close to the UK chief negotiator David Frost said Johnson believes there were “unfair defects” in May’s deal, which the government did not have time to fix last year.
The Prime Minister reportedly is now looking to make changes as the UK and EU rush to agree to a free trade deal before 31 December.
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“Unfortunately we couldn’t fix every defect with the withdrawal agreement last autumn – we had to prioritise abolishing the backstop and getting Brexit done in the face of a parliament that was trying to stop us,” the source said.
“We’ll now have to do our best to fix it but we’re starting with a clear disadvantage.”
It comes after little progress was made in the fourth round of trade talks between the UK and EU this week.
Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said there was “no significant areas of progress” on key areas, such as fishing policy, business competition regulations and overall governance of the deal.
He also chastised Johnson for allegedly breaking the political declaration, which set the parameters of a future trade deal.
However, a UK official said on Friday that Barnier and his team were misinterpreting the role of the political declaration.
“We’re committed to the political declaration, but we see it as guiding parameters – it is not a treaty,” they said.
“In my dictionary means parameters means limits, it doesn’t require us to agree to everything in it.”