Yahoo News Boris Johnson is 'fully committed' to securing Brexit deal with EU before October deadline, says Priti Patel
Boris Johnson’s government is “fully committed” to securing a withdrawal agreement with Brussels by 31 October, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said.
Ms Patel used a high-profile TV interview to state no fewer than nine times that the government was aiming for a deal, while not mentioning once the possibility of leaving without an agreement.
And she appeared to indicate that she made a genuine attempt to secure a deal a condition of joining Mr Johnson’s cabinet in July.
The home secretary’s comments appeared designed to quash widespread suspicions that the prime minister privately favours no-deal, and may be designed to put pressure on Mr Johnson to make good on his public declarations that he wants an agreement with Brussels to allow an orderly Brexit.
Ms Patel told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “The prime minister is fully committed to getting a deal…
“When he brought me into government, along with other colleagues, we were clear to him, as he was to us, that our focus is on leaving on 31 October with a deal.
“Our job right now is to absolutely give confidence to securing that deal and backing the prime minister in everything he is doing to secure that deal through the negotiations that are currently under way.”
Mr Johnson is due to meet outgoing European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Luxembourg on Monday in the latest of a series of bilateral talks with key EU figures, also including Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Tusk and Leo Varadkar.
His chief negotiator David Frost has undertaken a regular series of informal meetings, but EU officials have complained that the UK has yet to put any firm proposals on the table ahead of a crunch summit on 17 October when Mr Johnson hopes to seal an agreement.
Ms Patel said: My “instinct is that we have to leave and we have to leave with a deal on 31 October.
“We are moving forward now as a government collectively focused on leaving, but leaving with a deal, and that is the work that is taking place right now.”
Mr Johnson continues to insist that he will take the UK out of the EU with or without a deal on 31 October, despite MPs passing legislation designed to force him to extend negotiations beyond that date if he has failed to reach an agreement acceptable to parliament.
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