EU officials reportedly believe Boris Johnson and his team have “no intention” of negotiating and are intent on delivering a no-deal Brexit, it emerged.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove responded on Tuesday by saying the EU “now seem to be refusing to negotiate with UK”.
It came as MPs opposed to no deal accused the prime minister of acting like “Stuart monarchs and claiming a divine right to rule”, amid fears he is preparing to defy a potential vote of no confidence in parliament.
As Dominic Raab sought to “fire up” trade relationships on a tour of North America, the former US treasury secretary Larry Summers said it would be “delusional” for No 10 to expect a favourable trade deal with the US.
And after a meeting with chancellor Sajid Javid in London, Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe said Ireland's relationship with the UK would "fundamentally change" in the event of a no deal Brexit.
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Good morning and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of events at Westminster and beyond. Boris Johnson has been criticised by EU officials for his intransigence over Brexit, while Dominic Raab goes to North America in a bid to "fire up" trade relations with Canada, the US and Mexico.
Boris Johnson has been accused of acting like a Stuart king seeking a “divine right to rule” as fears grow he will defy parliament and simply ignore any no-confidence vote until after 31 October. Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the details.
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Boris Johnson accused of acting like Stuart king with ‘divine right to rule’ after Downing Street says UK leaving EU whatever the circumstances
Dominic Raab will seek to “fire up” the UK’s trade relationship with the US as he begins his three-day tour of North America to promote post-Brexit opportunities.
His second major overseas trip since being appointed foreign secretary starts in Toronto on Tuesday before moving on to Washington on Wednesday and Mexico City on Thursday.
“I’m determined that we fire up our economic relationships with non-European partners,” he said.
Raab said there was a “consistent warmth” for Britain and a “desire to work more closely with us” from 20 foreign ministers from across Asia-Pacific who he met during his visit to Thailand last week.
Some harsh words from Larry Summers, the former US treasury secretary, who has claimed it is “delusional” for Britain to expect a favourable trade deal with the US.
“I’m not sure what Britain wants from the United States that it can plausibly imagine the United States will give,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“If Britain thinks that the American financial regulators who have great difficulty coming together on anything are going to come together to give greater permissions and less regulation of UK firms, I would call that belief close to delusional.”
He added: “Look at it from America’s point of view: Britain has much less to give than Europe as a whole did, therefore less reason for the United States to make concessions. You make more concessions dealing with a wealthy man than you do dealing with a poor man.
“Second, Britain has no leverage. Britain is desperate. Britain has nothing else. It needs an agreement very soon. When you have a desperate partner, that's when you strike the hardest bargain.”
Not everyone agrees with Larry Summers, however. US Senator Tom Cotton – a Republican – said Britain should be at the “front of the queue” for a trade deal with the US.
“Many of my colleagues in the Congress would say that Great Britain should be in the front of the queue given everything our nations have gone through together,” he told Today.
“Obviously it wouldn’t be a matter of days or weeks for such negotiations, it might be months, but I would suspect it would be months not years.”
European diplomats now believe that Boris Johnson’s “central scenario” is to crash out without a Brexit deal and the British officials have no intention of negotiating in good faith.
Here’s our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan with more.
EU preparing for no-deal Brexit amid claims Boris Johnson has 'no intention' of renegotiating
'A no deal now appears to be the UK government’s central scenario'Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has responded to the former US treasury secretary’s comments about “desperate” Britain on the Today programme.
“This is a classic attempt by Larry Summers to use Brexit for domestic point-scoring,” said IDS.
“Forty-five Republican senators have signed a letter to the prime minister pledging to back a trade deal with Britain once we have left the EU. The president himself has expressed his enthusiasm for a UK-US deal.
“If, as Mr Summers suggests, we were only offered a bad deal by the US, we would not accept it. Trade deals must be mutually beneficial to be acceptable to both sides.
“The Democrats, fortunately, are not in control of US trade deals.”
Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings has accused former chancellor Philip Hammond of trying to block preparations for a no-deal Brexit when he was at No 11.
Andrew Woodcock has more on the row.
Dominic Cummings blames Philip Hammond for failure to prepare for no-deal Brexit
Ally of former chancellor dismisses the claims of Boris Johnson's senior adviser as 'simply untrue'Apparently Boris Johnson doesn’t want his time at No 10 to be defined by Brexit. Can he address income inequality and the north-south divide?
New research from the highly-respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows that a growing proportion of the wealthiest taxpayers in the country are concentrated in London and the south east.
The proportion of the top one per cent of taxpayers living in London grew by a fifth in a little over a decade, the figures show. Our political editor Andrew Woodcock examines the details.
Regional inequality growing under Tories with record number of top 1% earners living in southeast, research reveals
London is home to more than half of the UK's population of super-rich 0.1 per cent, earning more than £680,000 a year
Lord Price, the former Waitrose MD and ex-trade minister, claimed food supplies Britain gets from the rest of the world does not match what we get from EU countries.
Warning of the impact Brexit will have, the Conservative peer says 76 per cent of our veg currently comes from Europe.
Boris Johnson’s big official business for the day is hosting Estonian prime minister Juri Ratas at No 10, making an exception to his self-imposed rule not to sit down for talks with fellow EU leaders unless they agree to give up the Brexit backstop.
It’s understood their discussions will focus on shared defence and security concerns in the Baltic state, where UK troops are currently based as part of a Nato operation to deter Russian aggression.
Ratas tweeted this at the end of July after Johnson won the leadership contest.
Boris Johnson has hired Lynton Crosby’s “right-hand man” Isaac Levido as his director of politics and campaigning at Tory HQ, Politico reports.
Levido is expected to take charge of general election campaign plans and report director to Johnson’s own right-hand man Dominic Cummings.
The polling guru worked with Crosby at the Australian strategist’s firm CFT Partners and on the Tories’ successful 2015 election campaign.
Is it too late for MPs to force a general election before 31 October? Reuters has taken a look…
“In 2011, Britain introduced new laws setting out a fixed schedule for an election every five years, with provisions for holding an early election.
“Under these laws, after losing a no-confidence vote the prime minister or his political rivals have 14 days to prove they can govern by winning a vote in parliament. If no government has proven itself during that period, the prime minister moves to dissolve parliament and sets an election date no sooner than 25 working days after parliament is dissolved.
“Dissolution does not have to happen immediately and the date for an election can be more than 25 days from dissolution.”
Under this interpretation, 25 October is the earliest possible polling day, if – and it’s a big if – Labour proposes a no-confidence motion on 3 September.
And if – and it’s another big if – Johnson ignores the convention that elections take place on a Thursday (25 October is a Friday).
Nicola Sturgeon has been sharing the gossip about Theresa May. Scotland’s first minister said her conversations with the former PM were “soul-destroying and torturous” during a speaking event at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She also said the current PM is “one of these guys that talks utter nonsense with complete conviction and confidence”.
Here’s our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan with more.
Nicola Sturgeon says meeting Theresa May was 'soul-destroying' and 'torturous'
Scottish first minister delivers brutal verdict on Tory PMsDominic Cummings and his boss may be keen to sow doubt about the power of parliament, but Lib Dems’ business spokesperson Chuka Umunna insists MPs can still stop a no deal-exit.
Chuka Umunna: Don’t let Boris Johnson's puppeteers fool you – parliament can still stop no-deal Brexit
The prime minister wants to frame the coming months as a battle between parliament on one side, and his administration and the people on the other. This only works if he can credibly claim to speak for most of the country, which he clearly does notBoris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator David Frost reportedly suggested to EU officials the backstop – and any commitments about the Irish border – are null and void because the British government is no longer bound by pledges made by Theresa May’s team, according to the BBC’s Adam Fleming.
It’s why Brussels officials have complained that “we’ve gone back three years”.
Should the views of the former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, an official in the Obama administration, bear any significance today?
Summers had plenty to say earlier about how Washington negotiators would be approaching any trade talks with the UK in a post-Brexit world. Our political editor Andrew Woodcock takes a closer look.
Boris Johnson is 'delusional' to expect a favourable trade deal with America after Brexit, former US treasury secretary says
Obama's economics adviser Larry Summers says decision to leave EU whatever the circumstances has robbed UK of any leverage in trade talks
Boris Johnson has welcomed his first world leader to Downing Street since becoming PM. He shook hands with Estonian counterpart Juri Ratas in the street before heading in to Number 10.
Larry the cat was said to be asleep on a nearby windowsill, unmoved by the historic occasion.
The two men waited for reporters and photographers to leave the room before starting their meeting on shared defence and security concerns.
Spare a thought for the civil servants of Whitehall, who face a frantic couple of days. They have been given 48 hours to report on no-deal Brexit preparations by Boris Johnson’s consigliere Dominic Cummings, according to The Telegraph.
“He said he wanted a note from all government departments … detailing what they had done to prepare for no deal and what more needed to be done,” one insider told the newspaper.
Incidentally, Dominic Cummings recently told all government special advisers – better known as spads – that their loyalty is to Downing Street rather than the minister for whom they work. The former Vote Leave campaign director has also them anyone caught leaking will be fired under his “one strike and you’re out” policy.
The gossip coming out of the most recent No 10 meetings suggests the policy isn’t quite working. According to BuzzFeed’s Alex Wickham, Cummings has warned the spads against acting like “mr/mrs big time with a bunch of hacks”.
