Has U.K.'s Johnson Set Preconditions for Resuming Brexit Talks?

(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson has made clear he wants to renegotiate the Brexit deal secured by his predecessor, Theresa May. But has Britain’s new prime minister made it a precondition for talks with the European Union?

Johnson told French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in phone calls that he wants to reopen the withdrawal agreement with the EU and remove the backstop provision for the Irish border, which is hated by Brexiteers. After the EU rejected the demands, Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, suggested there’s little point to talks unless the bloc accepts the U.K. position.

“Obviously the key point is the withdrawal agreement is not going to pass this Parliament, so that is going to mean reopening the withdrawal agreement,” Slack told reporters on Friday. “We are very ready and will be energetic in beginning talking, but we’re also clear-eyed about what needs to happen.”

Slack batted away questions about whether reopening negotiations on the withdrawal agreement and dropping the backstop amounted to U.K. preconditions. “We are ready to begin talking, but are clear what the basis for those discussions needs to be,” he said. Asked if the two sides were trying to schedule talks, he said: “I don’t have a date to point you toward.”

Johnson himself hasn’t called his demands a precondition for talks, and a member of his team also said it wasn’t the case. What’s clear, though, is that there’s no sign of rapprochement with the EU. The question is whether that will change as the Oct. 31 deadline draws nearer.

The British prime minister “seems to have made a deliberate decision to set Britain on a collision course with the European Union and with Ireland,” Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said Friday. “Only he can answer the question as to why he is doing that.”

--With assistance from Dara Doyle.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas Penny

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