‘Wide gap’ between EU, UK on Brexit
The Taoiseach has said there is still a “very wide gap” on Brexit following his meeting with UK prime minister Boris Johnson in New York.
Both men and their teams met on the fringes of the UN summit, with Mr Varadkar describing the discussions as “a little more detailed” than his first meeting with Mr Johnson in Dublin recently.
“We got to talk about some of the detail of the withdrawal agreement and the backstop and I think it was a good meeting in the sense that we were able to get into more detail.
“However, there is still a very wide gap between the EU and the UK in terms of achieving what we need to achieve before October.”
Mr Varadkar said both men agreed to follow up their discussion with another meeting in the “near future”.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Johnson said he was “cautiously optimistic” about striking a Brexit deal ahead of the October 31 deadline.
It comes as the supreme court in the UK has ruled that Mr Johnson’s advice to the Queen to suspend parliament for five weeks was unlawful.
The decision was unanimously made by the 11-judge supreme court after Mr Johnson suspended parliament for five weeks ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline.
Mr Johnson is now set to return to London in time for the resumption of parliament today (wed) at 11.30am.
Ahead of his meeting with Mr Johnson, the Taoiseach said he would not be calling for his resignation after the court ruling.
Reacting to the court ruling, Mr Varadkar said: “It is very much an internal matter for the United Kingdom. So I don’t think it would be helpful for the Irish Government to comment on it.”
Asked if he would add his voice to the growing calls for Mr Johnson to step down as leader, Mr Varadkar said:
No, absolutely not. Whoever is the prime minister of the United Kingdom is somebody we’re going to work with and it’s not us who decide who the prime minister of the UK is. That’s an appointment made by the Queen based on the composition of the House of Commons.
Mr Varadkar said that the Brexit negotiations have always been complicated by the fact that the UK parliament is very divided and the latest twist would not change this. He said Mr Johnson would face “grave difficulties” in getting any Brexit deal through the House of Commons, adding:
“That’s always been a problem throughout this, but I don’t think that this supreme court decision today necessarily alters that arithmetic.”
Mr Varadkar said any alternative proposals from the UK would have to be put forward in writing and worked out by the first week in October.
He said a Brexit deal is “not the kind of thing that can be amended or cobbled together late at night” at the European Council meeting on October 17.
“If the UK does have meaningful proposals, changes that they would like to suggest to the withdrawal agreement or to the joint political declaration, more particularly, we really need to see them in advance so that they can be worked through and worked up in advance of the EU summit.”
