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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

Brexit: Boris Johnson accused of creating 'nightmare' of uncertainty for Europeans – as it happened

Closing summary

There’s all from us this evening. Here’s a summary of the day’s main events:

  • Boris Johnson was left humiliated after he was represented at a press conference with Luxembourg’s prime minister by an empty lectern. Johnson pulled out of the event shortly before it was due to go ahead, saying protests going on nearby were too loud.
  • Xavier Bettel, appearing alone, warned Johnson not to waste the time that remained. Bettel said Brexit was an internal UK issue that was being exported to Europe and that it was up to the UK to propose a solution.
  • Johnson claimed the UK and the EU have “just the right amount of time” to get a deal done. But, asked repeatedly what he was proposing, he was unable to give a clear answer.
  • The former prime minister David Cameron, ruled out a return to frontline politics. In another interview to promote his book, Cameron said he should have pushed his government’s austerity measures further, earlier.

If you’d like to read more, my colleague Daniel Boffey has the main story:

And that wraps up the interview. Once again, the latest posts should be read alongside the more comprehensive summary posted earlier this afternoon.

Referring to the man he considered a friend, Michael Gove, Cameron says:

To be fair to Michael, he was a very long standing Eurosceptic. He seemed in two minds about it and I thought: ‘If he’s in two minds surely stick with the team and the programme and the government and the work that we’re doing together’.

Asked if he felt betrayed by Gove, Cameron adds:

He said to me at the time: ‘If I come out for Brexit, I’ll make one speech and that’s it’. And, look, I believed that. Now maybe that was naive; maybe that was wrong but I mean, I start from the proposition that if someone you’ve known for 20 years tells you something it’s probably true.

[During the campaign,] he went from this liberal, modern, compassionate Conservative to something quite different.

Asked about his reference to Gove and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, as “ambassadors for the post-truth age”, Cameron says:

There was some things that happened in the campaign and things that Michael and Boris signed up to that I found deeply depressing because I didn’t think it was who they were.

Cameron is discussing the use of chemical weapons in Syria. ITV’s Tom Bradby shows him a television news report of such an attack and asks him to discuss his reaction, as well as those of other world leaders. Cameron tells him:

I watched it on the television and the sight of the children laid out in rows made me think of Ivan and everything that had happened to me and I thought it was just so appalling. I felt we’ve got to act. President Obama and I had discussed the red line, I think at the G8 in Northern Ireland of the use of chemical weapons and so I immediately thought; well we must, you know, get together and act.

Bradby asks Cameron: “At this point, it takes [Obama] four days, you know — four whole days— to even return your telephone calls. Cameron responds:

I think a more automatic response would have been better. As it was; it took four days to speak; we then agreed a plan.

Referring to the vote on intervention against Assad in Syria, Cameron adds:

I lost that vote; the first time a prime minister had lost a vote in the House of Commons on a major issue of foreign policy. I blame the people who voted against me, obviously, but I also blame myself.

I misread the situation but I think we should have acted. I’m not sure — I’m not saying it would have solved the Syrian crisis but it was a red line crossed, it was an appalling thing to happen. I made a passionate argument in parliament, but I lost that. I lost that vote.

ITV are broadcasting their interview with David Cameron now. It was heavily trailed and we published a fairly comprehensive summary here but we’ll bring you any other new lines as they emerge.

Labour have called on Liz Truss to resign as international trade secretary after she admitted her department allowed the sale of arms and military equipment that could be used by the Saudi regime in the conflict in Yemen.

In June, the court of appeal ruled that British arms sales to the kingdom were unlawful and the government undertook not to grant any new licences for equipment that “might be used in the conflict in Yemen”.

In a letter to the chair of the Commons committees on arms export controls, Liz Truss has admitted to a series of breaches.

In response, the shadow trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, has said:

Yet again, it appears there is one law for Conservative ministers and another for everyone else. The Tories have repeatedly claimed that we have the most robust licensing regime in the world. Now, it is clear that they cannot even abide by the rulings of the court of appeal. The department has failed to conduct proper assessments and essential information is not being relayed between government departments.

The people of the United Kingdom do not want to be complicit in fuelling the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the secretary of state must immediately suspend all arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Thousands of people have been killed in this war and it is staggering that the trade secretary thinks an apology will get her off the hook.

Liz Truss must provide a full account of why her department failed so miserably. If she cannot control her department, obey the law and do what is morally right, she should resign.

The SNP are not the only ones accusing Boris Johnson of seeking to avoid scrutiny this afternoon. Guy Verhofstadt is the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator.

Sir Nicholas Soames, who had the Tory whip withdrawn after voting against the government earlier this month, has criticised Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, for going ahead with the empty lectern press conference in the first place:

Updated

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, has spoken to his Saudi Arabian and German counterparts about the attack on the Aramco oil facility in Saudi Arabia.

He is scheduled to speak to the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, later today, as well as the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian. The Foreign and Commonwealth office said the UK “condemns the attack and is working closely with our international partners on the most effective response”.

Updated

Boris Johnson is guilty of “dealing in fiction”, not in facts, the SNP’s Westminster leader claims. Ian Blackford challenged the prime minister to publish any serious proposals he had put forward in the attempt to secure a new Brexit deal.

In barely 24 hours, Boris Johnson has gone from being the Incredible Hulk to the Incredible Sulk. It is a humiliating indictment of Boris Johnson’s leadership that he turned on his heel and scurried away rather than face questions today.

The empty podium beside Luxembourg’s PM was a damning symbol of this Tory government’s incompetence and lack of vision when it comes to Brexit, which is their only policy. This is a government in headlong retreat and on its last legs.

The meeting between Boris Johnson and EU President Juncker has confirmed that the UK government has failed to bring forward a single proposal to end the Brexit mess. Boris Johnson must stop dealing in fiction and start addressing the facts.

Last month, Angela Merkel gave Boris Johnson 30 days to bring forward meaningful and workable plans. We are 25 days in and, instead, not a single proposal has come forward and, instead, we have witnessed an unelected Tory leader shutting down parliament, purging his party and losing every single parliamentary vote.

The prime minister cannot continue to bluff his way around Europe. If he has proposals he should publish them now.

With a general election looming, the SNP will be putting Scotland’s opposition to Brexit and our right to choose our own future as an independent country at the heart of that contest.

Scotland’s voice has been completely ignored throughout this Brexit process and it’s clear that the people of Scotland deserve the choice of a better future than the Brexit chaos being imposed on us by a broken and bleak Westminster system.

Updated

Johnson also insisted he wouldn’t delay the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union on 31 October, should no deal be struck by then, while also promising to abide by the law requiring him to request a delay in those same circumstances.

He failed to explain how he intended to align these apparently contradictory positions. Here’s a portion of that exchange:

Kuenssberg asked Johnson how he intended to “get round” that law, noting that he has said he will not delay Brexit. He replied:

I won’t. Here’s, here’s what I want. I will uphold the constitution I will obey the law but we will come out on October 31st.

Kuenssberg again asked the prime minister: “But how, if MPs have changed the law to stop you doing that?” He responded:

We’re going to come out on October 31st and it’s vital that people understand that the UK will not extend. We won’t go on remaining in the EU beyond October. What on earth is the point? Do you know how much it costs?

Once again, Kuenssberg asked Johnson: “But how will you do that if MPs have changed the law to stop you? Are you looking for a way round the law. Because that’s what it sounds like?” The prime minister again replied:

We will obey the law but we will come out and we will come out, I should say, on October 31st.

Kuenssberg tried yet again, asking: “But that means you are looking for a way round the law. I mean to be really clear about this, Parliament has changed the law to make it almost impossible to take us out of the EU without a deal at the end of October. But you say that you will not do it. That means that you must be looking for a way around the law?” Johnson replied:

Well you know those are your words. What we’re going to do is come out on October 31st deal or no deal.

Kuenssberg pointed out to Johnson that the European commission has said it is “yet to see proposals that they think are viable and workable”. Johnson responded:

Well, it’s certainly the case that the commission is still officially sticking on their position that the backstop has got to be there. But, clearly, if they think that we can come up with alternatives, then I think they’re in the mark. I think the big picture is that the commission would like to do a deal.

Updated

The prime minister has again failed to provide a clear picture of how he intends to strike a deal with the EU, despite again claiming to be optimistic he can do so. Boris Johnson was asked repeatedly by the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, to outline the details of the proposals he has made to the European Union. Johnson said:

I mean, there is a negotiation going on, has been for a long time now, about how to do this. So there’s a limit to how much the details benefit from publicity before we’ve actually done the deal.

Kuenssberg asked him if he intended to “slice and dice the backstop”. Johnson replied:

The shape of it is all about who decides. Fundamentally, the problem with the backstop ... is that it’s a device by which the EU can continue after we’ve left to control our trade laws, control our tariffs, control huge chunks of our regulation and we have to keep accepting laws from Brussels long after we’ve left with no say on those laws. Now that just doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for the whole of the UK and it doesn’t work for Northern Ireland. So we have to find a way to avoid that situation.

Kuenssberg tried again, suggesting that Johnson was “just articulating the problem that’s been articulated for ever about the backstop”. She asked him: “Can you foresee a solution, for example, where – in some areas – Northern Ireland would follow EU rules and the rest of the UK would not?” Johnson replied:

What we want to see is a solution where the decision is taken by the UK and clearly that’s the problem with the backstop; it basically leaves the decision-making up to Brussels and that’s no good.

Kuenssberg tried yet again, asking the prime minister: “What’s the actual solution that you’re proposing? Is it giving more power to Stormont, for example, that’s being talked about a lot; that the Northern Irish assembly might be given a lock on opting out or opting in on EU regulation?” Johnson replied:

These are certainly some of the ideas that are being talked about and as are the ideas that you’re familiar with to do with maximum facilitations, to do with checks away from the border all sorts of ways in which you can avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland. This is all doable. It’s all doable with energy and goodwill.

Updated

Here is the Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan on how Boris Johnson was treated in Luxembourg.

That’s all from me for today. My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is now taking over.

Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Commons Brexit committee, has said that Boris Johnson has just four days to publish plans for an alternative to the backstop if he is to honour a promise he made to MPs. Benn has written to Johnson asking when the plans will appear. Here is his letter.

Hilary Benn’s letter to PM
Hilary Benn’s letter to PM Photograph: Brexit committee

Updated

The contest to replace Ruth Davidson as Scottish Conservative leader has become another casualty of the chaos surrounding Brexit and the uncertainty around the timing of a general election.

Party sources have admitted the Scottish leadership election has been postponed almost certainly until next year, as they won’t have the capacity and time to stage one until both Brexit and the election are resolved.

“It’s genuinely a question of logistics; it’s impossible to run a leadership campaign in the middle of an election campaign,” said one, adding that the uncertainty at Westminster is expected within the Scottish party to drag on into 2020.

That leaves Davidson’s deputy, the former car dealer Jackson Carlaw, in charge. He deputised while she was on maternity leave and apparently relishes the task. “He’s a happy warrior; he’s one of those people who does actually enjoy it,” said one party figure, who points at Carlaw’s pedigree as a serial election candidate (he first stood for the party in 1982) and former Scottish party deputy chairman.

Some Scottish Tories moot postponing the leadership contest until after the next Holyrood election in 2021, citing the additional challenge of opposing Nicola Sturgeon’s push for an early Scottish independence vote – a push expected to intensify over coming months.

A delay of that length is highly unlikely. Carlaw offers continuity, is seasoned enough to enjoy the jousts with Sturgeon at first minister’s questions, and is imbued with self-confidence, but unlike Davidson has limited appeal amongvoters and little name recognition.

In 2005 he apologised for making racist jokes at the party’s general election manifesto launch, and has ruled himself out as a future leadership contender. In one recent interview, he described himself as being “at the beginning of the dinosaur end of political life”.

Jackson Carlaw
Jackson Carlaw Photograph: Ken Jack/Getty Images

Updated

Luxembourg PM's press conference - Summary

Here are the main points from Xavier Bettel’s extraordinary press conference. (See 3.31pm.) The prime minister of Luxembourg was speaking in English, but it is not his first language, and so occasionally I have tidied up his syntax just so that it reads more clearly.

  • Bettel accused Boris Johnson of creating a “nightmare” of uncertainty for EU citizens by failing to clarify what he wanted from Brexit. In his opening statement Bettel said:

Our people need to know what is going to happen to them in six weeks’ time. They need clarity, they need certainty and they need stability. You can’t hold their future hostage for party political gains.

At this point, gesturing to the point where Boris Johnson would have been standing if he had joined the press conference, Bettel went on:

Now it’s on Mr Johnson – he holds the future of all UK citizens and every EU citizen living in the UK in his hands. It’s his responsibility. Your people, our people, count on you – but the clock is ticking, use your time wisely.

In this there was an echo of what Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said when the EU granted a Brexit extension in April. “Please do not waste this time,” Tusk said. Many EU leaders think the UK has wasted this time.

At another point, in response to a question about a possible extension to the transition period, Bettel again said EU citizens needed certainty. He said:

The fact is our citizens want to have certainty. As long as they don’t know what is going to happen they don’t know what will be their own future ... This is a nightmare.

People would love to have clarity, they would love to know what is going to happen.

  • He complained that Johnson had not tabled firm proposals for an alternative to the backstop. “We need more than just words,” he said in his opening statement, referring to the need for a proposal in writing. And then, in the Q&A, he said:

The meeting was longer than planned. We [talked] about the different positions of the UK government. But I repeat – I told him, I hear a lot, but I don’t read a lot. If they want us to be able to discuss anything, we need it on the written side.

He said the only written text on the table at the moment was the existing withdrawal agreement.

  • He dismissed Johnson’s claim that significant progress has been made in the talks. When asked about this, Bettel replied:

For me, I just have one withdrawal agreement on the table. And it’s the one from last year. There are no changes. There are no concrete proposals for the moment on the table. And I won’t give an agreement to ideas. We need written proposals and the time is ticking. So stop speaking, but act if you want to discuss different proposals, but we won’t accept any agreement [which] goes against the single market [or] the Good Friday agreement.

  • He mocked what was said in London about Johnson’s Brexit strategy, saying that he had “read in the papers a few days ago that it goes from big progress to [Incredible] Hulk to David Cameron proposing a second Brexit”.
  • Bettel suggested that, if there were a no-deal Brexit, it would take years for the two sides to reach a subsequent agreement on trade.
  • He said he was not confident that Johnson would be able to get any deal through the House of Commons.
  • Bettel said any Brexit deal had to protect the EU single market and the Good Friday agreement.
  • He said the UK alone was to blame for the Brexit crisis. He and other EU leaders would not take responsibility, he said:

Some people would love to give the blame to another. Not being responsible for the situation.

One party, the Conservative party, decided to organise that referendum ...

Now people try to blame the others because we cannot find an agreement.

We did not decide to organise Brexit. It was a unilateral decision of the UK government. We have to accept the result.

But it is not now in a unilateral way that the UK government will decide its next relations with the EU.

We sit around the table. We have a withdrawal agreement. And this withdrawal agreement has been accepted by the UK government. I just want to repeat and remind [you] that Theresa May accepted the withdrawal agreement. So don’t make it that the European Union will be the bad guy, not accepting decisions that the UK proposes ...

These are homemade problems.

He also said that neither he, as a European leader, nor the commission, nor the EU27 as a whole were responsible “for the mess we’re in”.

  • He said he would only back an extension of article 50 if it were to serve a purpose. He said further delay was not in the interests of EU citizens. He said:

Imagine you are a European citizen in London and you don’t know how your future looks like. Imagine you are a UK citizen living in Europe. You don’t know if tomorrow you will need a special agreement to be able to stay in the country, to be able to send your children to school. People want clarification, and as soon as possible.

So to speak about new delays, just to postpone things, is not in the interests of our citizens.

  • He said the leave campaign lied during the referendum.

I just remember that, before Brexit, people said to some voters that they will get money back from social insurance, that Brexit will be done in 24 hours and everything will be good. And there were a lot of things where before the referendum no one was able to say: ‘Sorry, this is a lie.’

Bettel did not point out that Johnson led the leave campaign. But he did say there should have been a proper information campaign in the UK at the time of the referendum, so people had the facts.

  • Bettel expressed disapproval at the hints from Number 10 that Johnson could if necessary break the law to ensure Brexit happens. When asked about that, Bettel just said:

This would not happen in Luxembourg.

Number 10 says the government will obey the law. But Johnson also says he would refuse to request an article 50 extension in any circumstances, even though the Benn act would make that a legal obligation, and Downing Street has not explained how these two apparently contradictory positions might be reconciled.

Xavier Bettel holding his press conference.
Xavier Bettel holding his press conference. Photograph: Joshua Sammer/Getty Images

Updated

These are from the New York Times’ Matina Stevis-Gridneff.

The Press Association has filed some quotes from what Boris Johnson said when he spoke to journalists in private, after the Xavier Bettel press conference. Here are the key points.

  • Johnson claimed that “a lot of work” had been done on possible alternatives to the backstop. That work would now accelerate, he said:

Over the last couple of weeks there’s been a lot of work, papers have been shared but we are now in the stage where we have to start really accelerating the work. That was the agreement today.

  • He said he still thought there was “a good chance” of the UK and the EU agreeing a Brexit deal. He said:

Yes, we’ve got a good chance of a deal. Yes, I can see the shape of it. Everybody could see roughly what could be done.

But it will require movement. And it will require the system in which the EU can control the UK after we leave - the so-called backstop - to go from that treaty. And that needs to happen. That’s a big change that we need to get done. But if we can get that done, as I’ve said before, then we’re at the races.

  • He said there was “just the right amount of time” available to do a deal.

I think we’ve got actually just the right amount of time to do a deal between now and October 17-18. But if we can’t do it by then we will make sure we can come out on October 31 - deal or no deal.

  • He implied that a no-deal Brexit could go ahead on 31 October - even though parliament has passed a law intended to stop that happening. (See above.)
  • He rejected claims that the UK attempt to renegotiate Brexit was a shame. When this was put to him some EU leaders thought he wanted a no-deal Brexit, he replied:

I don’t know who you’ve been talking to but that’s not what our interlocutors at EU heads of government level think at all. They know that we’re all working very hard to get a deal.

This is a difficult moment because clearly we’re very, very keen to do it but I don’t want people to think it’s necessarily in the bag.

It isn’t necessarily in the bag, there will be hard work to be done.

  • He said that he had pulled out of the joint press conference with Bettel because of the noise. Asked what happened, he said:

I don’t think it would’ve been fair to the prime minister of Luxembourg.

I think there was clearly going to be a lot of noise.

And I think our points might’ve been drowned out.

Boris Johnson on the balcony of the UK ambassador’s residence in Luxembourg where he gave TV interviews after the press conference that he missed because of the noisy protesters.
Boris Johnson on the balcony of the UK ambassador’s residence in Luxembourg where he gave TV interviews after the press conference that he missed because of the noisy protesters. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

I’ve added a correction to an earlier post because it wrongly said Luxembourg was the smallest country in the EU. In fact Malta is smaller, both geographically and in terms of population. (See 3.31pm.)

Johnson says UK and EU have 'just right amount of time' to get deal done by end of October

Boris Johnson has recorded a clip for broadcasters. Sky News is playing it now.

He says he thinks there is still time for a deal to be done.

He says he thinks the UK and the EU have got “just the right amount of time” to get a deal done by the end of October.

If that is not possible, the UK will leave by 31 October.

  • Johnson says UK and EU have “just the right amount of time” to get a deal done by the end of October.

Updated

Luxembourg PM's press conference - Snap verdict

That was extraordinary. Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, has just been humiliated by the leader of almost the smallest country in the European Union.

We were expecting a joint, open-air press conference but, with a large crowd of anti-Brexit campaigners threatening to drown out Johnson, it was announced that the British PM was not going to take part (presumably because of the demonstration, although that has not officially been confirmed yet). Normally in these circumstances the polite thing to do is to rearrange. But instead Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg, went ahead anyway, effectively “empty chairing” his guest. At one point he even gestured at the space where Johnson was supposed to be.

Then Bettel just let rip. People often wonder what EU leaders say or think about Johnson in private. Well, now we know. The leave campaign was a pack of lies, Johnson’s talk of progress in the Brexit negotiations is unfounded, the UK still has not come up with any ideas about an alternative to the backstop. On and on he went, with particular emphasis on the point that the UK, not the EU, was to blame for the crisis. It was a “nightmare” for EU citizens, said Bettel. At several points he was loudly applauded by the protesters, because they felt he was articulating their anger.

Yesterday, Johnson depicted himself as the Incredible Hulk. As the Telegraph’s Michael Deacon suggests, the reality could not be more different.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected the post above because originally it said Luxembourg was the smallest country in the EU. In fact Malta is smaller, both geographically and in terms of population.

Xavier Bettel gestures to the empty space where Boris Johnson was originally meant to be joining him for a news conference after their talks in Luxembourg.
Xavier Bettel gestures to the empty space where Boris Johnson was originally meant to be joining him for a news conference after their talks in Luxembourg. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Updated

Bettel says one party decided to organise the referendum.

He says there was no clear information campaign in the UK explaining what Brexit would mean.

He says Brexit was not the EU’s decision.

And he says Theresa May accepted the withdrawal agreement.

These are “homemade problems”, he says.

He says he will not accept that EU leaders, or the European commission, are to blame for what happened.

And that’s it. The protesters cheer as Bettel leaves.

I will post a summary and a verdict soon.

Updated

Q: Did Johnson say he would obey the law? He has implied he would not.

Bettel replies:

This would not happen in Luxembourg.

Bettel says before Brexit people said to voters in the UK that they would get money back, that Brexit would happen in 24 hours, and that it would all be fine.

No one called out the lies, he says.

That is because people in the EU were not strong enough to say that lies were being told.

  • Bettel accuses leave campaigners of lying during the referendum.

Updated

Q: What do you think of the proposal from Stephen Barclay for the transition period to be extended?

Bettel says his citizens want certainty.

This is a nightmare ...

Imagine you are a European citizen in London, and you don’t know what the future will look like.

He says speaking about new delays is not in the interests of EU citizens.

Q: Do you think Brexit will actually happen?

Bettel says Johnson told him there would not be a second referendum.

He says his own preference is for a deal.

He says he cannot guarantee whether or not Johnson can get a deal through parliament.

Bettel says his meeting with Johnson took longer than planned. He says he told Johnson: “I hear a lot, but I don’t read a lot.”

He says he needs to see proposals in writing.

He says the UK cannot blame the EU because they do not know how to get out of a situation they created.

Updated

Bettel says he was not here to negotiate. The negotiator is Michel Barnier.

Q: Did you hear any new proposals from Johnson? Do you think you are making good progress?

Bettel says the only proposal on the table is the withdrawal agreement. He says the clock is ticking. The EU will not accept any proposal that undermines the Good Friday agreement. The Irish are part of the EU family, he says.

Bettel says Luxembourg’s priority is to protect the single market.

He says the EU needs firm proposals.

He says the EU will not grant another extension to the UK just for the sake of it.

The UK has always been a close friend of Luxembourg’s, he says. That will not change because of Brexit.

But people need clarity and certainty. You cannot hold a country hostage for party political reasons.

Gesturing towards the empty podium, he says the clock is ticking. Johnson needs to use his time wisely.

Updated

Luxembourg PM holds press conference without Boris Johnson after protesters threaten to disrupt it

Boris Johnson and Xavier Bettel have just left the PM’s office.

Bettel is speaking to the press alone.

He says demonstrating is a right in a democracy.

He says he wants to thank Boris Johnson. It was important to listen to Johnson, and to hear concrete proposals from him.

Updated

The Boris Johnson/Xavier Bettel press conference has been cancelled, Sky’s Aubrey Allegretti is reporting.

It was due to take place outside the prime minister’s office, and presumably the decision to shelve it had something to do with the large crowd determined to make it inaudible. (See 2.39pm.)

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has just posted this on Twitter. Jean Asselborn is the foreign minister of Luxembourg.

Here is Xavier Bettel greeting Boris Johnson earlier outside the prime minister’s office in Luxembourg.

Xavier Bettel greets Boris Johnson
Xavier Bettel greets Boris Johnson
 Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

And here are the protesters.

Protesters outside the Luxembourg Ministry of State
Protesters outside the Luxembourg Ministry of State Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Boris Johnson and Xavier Bettel are due to hold a press conference soon.

There will be a live feed of the open-air venue at the top of this blog.

We may not hear very much of it. There is a large crowd of protesters only a few dozen yards away,

This is from the Express’s Joe Barnes.

And this is from the Telegraph’s James Crisp.

Updated

From the Telegraph’s James Crisp

Here is more on the anti-Johnson protests. These are from the Sun’s Nick Gutteridge.

Boris Johnson has arrived for his meeting with Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg.

As my colleague Daniel Boffey reports, Johnson was booed as he arrived.

Britain is unable to exert any moral authority in a world increasingly dominated by authoritarian leaders if Boris Johnson continues to threaten to break the law over Brexit, the Labour-turned-Liberal Democrat MP Chuka Umunna has argued.

Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story on Umunna’s speech to the Lib Dem conference.

Cameron firmly rules out returning to frontline politics

The former Conservative prime minister David Cameron has recorded an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby about his memoirs, which will be broadcast at 8pm tonight. Several extracts have already been published, and the Times published a long interview with Cameron on Saturday. You can read about those here. Here are some of the new lines from what Cameron told ITV.

  • Cameron suggests it might have been better to speed up the cuts required under his austerity programme. Asked to defend the austerity cuts, he said:

I think, look, the cuts were very difficult to make and there were lots of very difficult decisions and I’m not sure we got all of them right, but I’ve never wavered in the belief that it was necessary to make difficult decisions…

There is a case for saying that some of the changes we had to make in year two, in year three, in year four – it might have been better if we did a little bit more a bit earlier. When you have that sort of window of permission from the public, I felt after the 2010 election, you know, we’d fought an election, rather untraditionally, saying; ‘If you elect us, we’re going to make cuts and people will look back at this period and there’ll be great big arguments about it.’

  • He said Boris Johnson told him in a text message sent shortly before he publicly announced that he was campaigning for leave that he expected Brexit to be “crushed” in the referendum. Asked what he thought were Johnson’s motives for supporting leave, Cameron said:

My conclusion is; he thought that the Brexit vote would be lost but he didn’t want to give up the chance of being on the romantic, patriotic nationalistic side of Brexit.

Minutes before he went out to explain why he was going to be on the side of Brexit, he sent me a text saying, ‘Brexit will be crushed like a toad under the harrow.’... but I can only conclude that – he’d never argued for it before; he thought it was going to lose and that’s why he made the choice.

  • Cameron firmly ruled out out a return to frontline politics. Asked if he would ever return to frontline politics, he replied:

No … I love this country. I care passionately about what happens. But I think the idea of going back to frontline politics is not going to happen, nor should it.

  • He said Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament for five-weeks would turn out to be “counterproductive”. Asked if the decision to suspend (prorogue, in parliamentary jargon) was right, Cameron replied:

I don’t. We’ll wait for what the courts say. I don’t think it was illegal. It looked to me, from the outside, like rather sharp practice of trying to restrict the debate and I thought it was actually from his point of view probably counterproductive. In the end, we have to work through parliament, and you can’t deny the arithmetic of parliament and the majorities there are in parliament.

  • He said it would be “disastrous” for the Conservatives if the decision to suspend the whip was not reversed. He said:

I obviously disagree with the idea of taking away the whip from 21 hard-working, loyal Conservatives. I think that was a bad decision, if it isn’t reversed, it will be I think a disastrous decision. I hope that Boris will get a deal in Brussels, he will come back, try and bring parliament together to back that deal – I don’t see why those 21 people shouldn’t be restored to the Conservative whip. If they’re not, I really worry about what could happen.

Updated

Contrary to what was being reported quite widely this morning, there were no snails on the menu when Boris Johnson had lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker, the BBC’s Adam Fleming reports.

From the Independent’s Jon Stone

No 10 says UK and EU have agreed to 'intensify' talks

Downing Street has now released its readout from the Juncker/Johnson lunch. A spokesperson said:

The prime minister and President Juncker had a constructive meeting this lunchtime. The Brexit secretary [Stephen Barclay] and Michel Barnier [the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator] were also in attendance.

The leaders took stock of the ongoing talks between the UK’s team and taskforce 50. The prime minister reconfirmed his commitment to the Good Friday/Belfast agreement and his determination to reach a deal with the backstop removed, that UK parliamentarians could support.

The prime minister also reiterated that he would not request an extension and would take the UK out of the EU on the 31st October.

The leaders agreed that the discussions needed to intensify and that meetings would soon take place on a daily basis. It was agreed that talks should also take place at a political level between Michel Barnier and the Brexit secretary, and conversations would also continue between President Juncker and the prime minister.

Boris Johnson and Jean-Claude Juncker leaving after their lunch in Luxembourg
Boris Johnson and Jean-Claude Juncker leaving after their lunch in Luxembourg Photograph: Julien Warnand/EPA

Juncker says negotiations with UK will continue 'at speed' after 'friendly' lunch with Boris Johnson

And this is from Jean-Claude Juncker’s spokeswoman, Mina Andreeva.

Juncker reveals after lunch with Boris Johnson he is still waiting to hear workable UK backstop plan

The European commission has just put outthis statement about the lunch.

President Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister Johnson had a working lunch today in Luxembourg. The aim of the meeting was to take stock of the ongoing technical talks between the EU and the UK and to discuss the next steps.

President Juncker recalled that it is the UK’s responsibility to come forward with legally operational solutions that are compatible with the withdrawal agreement. President Juncker underlined the commission’s continued willingness and openness to examine whether such proposals meet the objectives of the backstop. Such proposals have not yet been made.

The commission will remain available to work 24/7. The October European council will be an important milestone in the process. The EU27 remain united.

President Juncker was accompanied by the European commission’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

President Juncker will travel to Strasbourg later today and will address the plenary session of the European parliament on Wednesday morning.

Updated

Boris Johnson booed by crowd as he leaves lunch with Juncker

Boris Johnson was booed by people in the crowd outside as he left his lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker, the Telegraph’s James Crisp reports.

Boris Johnson has finished his lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker. On his way out, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, told reporters that Juncker would be making a statement about it in due course.

As Boris Johnson went in for his lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker, he was asked why he was so optimistic about the talks. “Cautious, cautious,” Johnson replied.

Updated

Irish finance minister says backstop 'a compromise' that does not challenge unionism

In a speech this morning Paschal Donohoe, Ireland’s finance minister, said the British plan to abandon some EU regulations after Brexit would have significant implications for his country. Donohoe told Dublin City University’s Brexit Institute that Britain’s intentions were clear from the letter (pdf) that Boris Johnson sent to Donald Tusk in August. Donohoe went on:

The challenges and opportunities that Ireland will face in the medium term will be heavily influenced by how far the United Kingdom decides to diverge from the European Union.

While the Irish government will absolutely respect the choice of the British government to pursue a path of regulatory divergence from the EU, there are clear implications for this island and the Good Friday agreement that cannot be ignored in the event that this becomes its policy.

Donohoe also said unionists should not view the backstop as a threat. It was a compromise, he said:

I understand the fears that some in the unionist community have expressed about the backstop.

The government takes these concerns very seriously, as we do the concerns of everyone who is troubled by Brexit and its potential impacts on both parts of our island.

However, the backstop should not be viewed as a challenge to unionism.

Its purpose is to provide certainty to businesses and communities on both sides of the border that they will be able to continue to operate and go about their daily lives as they do today. Nothing more.

It represents a compromise - it is not the status quo.

It is not the same as Northern Ireland staying in the EU.

Paschal Donohoe
Paschal Donohoe Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Updated

The Democratic Unionist party has for the first time signalled it is prepared to accept some post-Brexit EU rules for Northern Ireland as long as the Stormont assembly has a say, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports.

Anne Gellinek, from the German broadcaster ZDF, has a good picture of the entrance to the restaurant where Boris Johnson and Jean-Claude Juncker are meeting.

Here is a translation of the key message in her tweet.

Expectations:

from Brit side: high

from EU side: low

Alexander Schallenberg, the Austrian foreign affairs minister, said this morning that, if Boris Johnson failed to present Jean-Claude Juncker with new Brexit proposals, the two sides would end up with a no-deal Brexit. These are from RTE’s Tony Connelly.

Alexander Schallenberg
Alexander Schallenberg. Photograph: EU

Updated

Peter Foster, the Telegraph’s Europe editor, has posted a long thread on Twitter, which is worth reading, looking at the various possible Brexit compromises available to the UK and the EU, and how acceptable they would be to London and Brussels. It starts here.

And here is his conclusion.

Updated

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesperson has firmed up what Dominic Raab told Today this morning - that the government will not seek an extension to the planned 14-month Brexit transition (which, of course, would only be available in the event of the UK and the EU agreeing a deal.) See 9.46am. These are from the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn.

Updated

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, was asked if he was confident of progress as he went in for his lunch with Boris Johnson. According to the Press Association, he replied: “We will see.”

According to the Telegraph’s James Crisp, Juncker also offered to pay for lunch.

Here is some footage of Boris Johnson meeting Jean-Claude Juncker. This is from the BBC’s Larissa Kennelly.

Last month Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, announced that the UK was going to start boycotting some EU meetings if it no longer saw any point in turning up. As my colleague Jennifer Rankin reports, that has happened today, at the general affairs council.

Here are more pictures from Luxembourg.

Jean-Claude Juncker and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, arriving at Le Bouquet Garni restaurant in Luxembourg.
Jean-Claude Juncker (C) and Michel Barnier (R), the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, arriving at Le Bouquet Garni restaurant in Luxembourg. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
Boris Johnson (right) shaking hands with Juncker.
Boris Johnson (R) shaking hands with Juncker. Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP
Juncker (right) shaking hands with Johnson.
Juncker (R) shaking hands with Johnson.
 Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP

Updated

From Sky’s Michelle Clifford

From Bloomberg’s Maria Tadeo

Boris Johnson has arrived for his lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker.

Boris Johnson arriving for his lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker
Boris Johnson arriving for his lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker Photograph: Sky News

'Europe never loses patience,' says Juncker ahead of Brexit talks with Boris Johnson

Jean-Claude Juncker has been speaking ahead of his lunch with Boris Johnson.

Rather, he has come out with one of his characteristic gnomic utterances which may give us a profound insight into what he thinks about the talks process - or may tell us nothing at all.

This is from his spokeswoman, Mina Andreeva.

From the BBC’s Adam Fleming

Here is the menu, complete with typo.

Updated

Swinson says Lib Dems open to pro-remain electoral pacts, but not with Labour

Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, has said that her party is in talks with other parties about standing aside in certain seats at the next general election to ensure that pro-remain candidates are elected. But Labour would not be included in such an arrangement, she told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme.

As the Press Association reports, Swinson said such an agreement had worked well previously, including in the Brecon and Radnorshire byelection last month where Jane Dodds was elected as a new MP for the party. She went on:

There was obviously success for that kind of arrangement in the Brecon and Radnorshire byelection. Plaid Cymru and the Green party stood aside, stood shoulder to shoulder if you like, with the Liberal Democrats and Jane Dodds was elected to be a very unequivocal voice in parliament for remain. So, that happened already and it’s successful.

Asked whether the party would stand aside for Labour candidates, the Lib Dem leader said:

That’s a different question because Labour are not a remain party, Labour are trying to deliver a Labour Brexit. But where we agree with others on stopping Brexit, we are in those discussions.

Updated

This is Le Bouquet Garni restaurant in Luxembourg, where Boris Johnson is due to meet Jean-Claude Juncker for lunch.

Le Bouquet Garni restaurant in Luxembourg.

Updated

In an interview with the Today programme Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, defended her party’s decision to go into the next election promising to revoke Brexit without a referendum if it won a majority. She said:

I absolutely am determined that we keep our place in the EU. And I have not given up. I still believe we can stop Brexit.

But Swinson would not be drawn on whether the Lib Dems would campaign to rejoin the EU if Brexit happened.

Jo Swinson visiting Bournemouth college this morning.
Jo Swinson visiting Bournemouth college this morning. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Updated

The Belgian foreign minister, Didier Reynders, has said Boris Johnson needs to put forward concrete proposals for a revised Brexit deal at the European council meeting in October. Reynders said:

It is very difficult to react without any concrete proposals so we will see if it’s possible for Michel Barnier to receive something in the next days or in the next hours.

Asked what his message was for Johnson, Reynders replied: “To come to the council and to come, maybe, with some ideas.”

Updated

Raab says government not considering extending planned transition beyond December 2020

There were two other important lines in Dominic Raab’s Today interview, in addition to what the foreign secretary said about it now being time for the EU to compromise in the Brexit talks. (See 9.07am.)

  • Raab insisted that the UK was not considering extending the planned Brexit transition period. Under the withdrawal agreement negotiated by Theresa May, there would be a transition period after the UK left the EU during which it would effectively remain bound by EU law, to allow both sides time to adjust. Originally the transition was due to last 21 months, ending in December 2020, although there was an option to extend it for a year or two. If the UK were to leave on 31 October, as the government wants, it would only last 14 months. Yesterday Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, hinted the government might want to use the option to extend. But Raab seemed to rule out the idea. He told Today:

No, it is not something under consideration.

This may be more wishful thinking than a firm guide to the future. The plan was for the transition to last until the UK and the EU had negotiated a future trade deal. But Phil Hogan, who has just been appointed as the EU’s new trade commissioner, told the Irish Times last week that it would take him up to eight months to put a new negotiating team together. After that, negotiating a trade deal with the UK would take “a number of years”, he said. Even if the UK and EU were to agree a withdrawal agreement next week, it is impossible to imagine a full trade deal being completed by December next year.

  • Raab hinted that the government would want to test the Benn Act passed by parliament with the intention of ruling out a no-deal Brexit. Asked if the government would defy the law, as some briefing from No 10 has implied, he replied:

The UK government is always going to behave lawfully. I think the suggestion otherwise is nonsense.

But he also claimed that the legislation was “deeply, deeply flawed”. He went on:

So obviously we would look at all the implications and all the variables with it ...

I think the precise implications of the legislation need to be looked at very carefully. We are doing that.

At the weekend Jolyon Maugham, the barrister and director of the Good Law Project who helped to organise the Scottish legal challenge against the prorogation decision, published a blogpost identifying a loophole in the act.

Updated

The Finnish European affairs minister, Tytti Tuppurainen, has said the UK has still not put forward any proposals that could “compensate” for the removal of the Irish backstop. Speaking as she arrived at a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels, she said:

We have to remain open and see what happens in the domestic politics of the United Kingdom.

Of course the European Union is always ready to negotiate when a proper proposal from the United Kingdom side is presented. So far I haven’t seen any proposal that would compensate the current backstop in the withdrawal agreement.

Updated

Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story about what Dominic Raab has been saying this morning.

EU must show 'flexibility', says Raab, ahead of Boris Johnson's key meeting with Juncker

Boris Johnson goes to Luxembourg today for what might be one of the most important meetings he has had with any of his EU counterparts in his quest for a Brexit deal. He is having lunch with Jean-Claude Juncker, the outgoing president of the European commission, and although the EU October summit, which is seen by many as the place where an agreement may or may not get finalised, is more than a month away, in an article for today’s Daily Telegraph (paywall) Johnson claims the next few days will be crucial in determining whether a deal can be done. He says:

If we can make enough progress in the next few days, I intend to go to that crucial summit on Oct 17, and finalise an agreement that will protect the interests of business and citizens on both sides of the Channel, and on both sides of the border in Ireland.

In August, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, appeared to give Johnson a 30-day deadline to come up with an alternative to the backstop that was acceptable to the EU and would allow the two sides to reach an agreement. Twenty-six days later EU figures are complaining that the UK still has not tabled any firm plans for a backstop replacement. But, in interviews this morning, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, insisted the EU knew exactly what the UK was proposing and that a plan had just not been tabled formally because that would become a “trap”. He told Sky News:

On all sides, for those that don’t want a deal, or who want to put pressure on the UK, there’s an attempt to elicit more and more concessions, and more and more detail, as a diplomatic pressure exercise. We are not going to fall into that trap.

But I can reassure you that the details and the shape of the deal have been discussed at a political level, and Boris Johnson is out there talking to Jean-Claude Juncker today about that. They’ve been discussed at technical level.

Raab said it was now up to the EU to compromise. He told Sky:

So this isn’t about whether enough technical content has been provided. It is about whether there’s the political will on the EU’s side to do a deal which I still believe would be in both sides’ interests.

And he delivered the same message on the Today programme, when he said it was up to the EU to show “pragmatism and flexibility”. He said:

We’ve been clear [what the UK is proposing] and will continue to flesh out and respond to any questions. But of course, at some point, the EU is going to have to put up its hand and say: ‘OK, we know that there’s the requirement for some pragmatism and flexibility to get this deal over the line’, because the previous deal, which I understand why they want to stick to, failed so dramatically ...

I think it has come to that moment in time, as we lead into the October council, for the decisions to be made. We’re willing and able to do a deal on the terms I’ve described. The question now is whether the EU has got the political will to meet us to get that deal which is good for both sides.

I will post more from his interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.

11am: Paschal Donohoe, the Irish finance minister, gives a speech on Brexit in Dublin.

11am: Chuka Umunna, the former Labour MP who is now the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, speaks at the Lib Dem conference.

11am (UK time): Boris Johnson meets Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, for lunch.

1pm (UK time): Johnson holds a meeting with Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg. At around 2.15pm UK time they are due to hold a press conference.

4.10pm: Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem deputy leader and Treasury spokesman, speaks at the Lib Dem conference.

As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web, although I will mostly be focusing on Brexit-related matter. I plan to publish a summary when I wrap up.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

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