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EU gives Boris Johnson ultimatum: Show us Brexit plan in 12 days or 'it's over'

EU leaders have given Boris Johnson an ultimatum to come up with a new Brexit plan by the end of September, or face up to a no-deal.

The deadline, agreed at a meeting in Paris on Wednesday evening, comes as the bloc's chief negotiator Michel Barnier told Mr Johnson to stop "pretending" to negotiate.

EU officials are concerned that the prime minister is wasting their time and playing out talks for as long as possible without presenting proposals - possibly with an eye on an upcoming election.

“Almost three years after the UK referendum, I don’t think we should be spending time pretending to negotiate. I think we need to move forward with determination," chief negotiator Mr Barnier told the European Parliament on Wednesday morning.

Later the same day in Paris Emmanuel Macron – who has taken the hardest line against the UK – met with Antti Rinne, Finland's prime minister and the current holder of the rotating EU Council presidency.

"We are both concerned about what is happening in Britain right now and the confusion that is going on from there to Europe," Mr Rinne told reporters after the meeting.

"If no proposals are forthcoming, I believe that quite a few European leaders agree with the position expressed today with Macron. Then it's over. Now is the time to come up with clear presentations and make them verifiable."

EU officials told The Independent last week that they were losing patience – and that they feared they were being "led up the garden path" by the UK negotiators.

It comes amid reports that ideas brought to Brussels by UK negotiators amounted to the old agreement, with the section on the Irish backstop simply crossed out in the text. UK sources have also reportedly suggested that full proposals are being deliberately held back to the last minute for timing reasons.

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