Britons Back No Deal if EU Rejects Johnson’s Proposals

Activists hold up placards from the Leave Means Leave Pro-Brexit campaign group outside th
NIKLAS HALLE'N/AFP/Getty
Victoria Friedman

A poll shows a plurality of Britons want Prime Minister Boris Johnson to deliver Brexit on October 31st without a deal if the EU does not agree to new exit proposals.

The ComRes poll revealed 42 per cent of Britons agree with the statement: “If the EU doesn’t agree to Boris Johnson’s proposals for a Brexit deal, the UK should leave on 31 Oct without a deal.” Forty per cent disagree.

The poll also showed that more people would feel “angry” (40 per cent) than “relieved” (37 per cent) if the UK does not leave on Halloween.

These results follow another ComRes survey showing Britons would blame Brussels, Remainer MPs, and the UK Parliament more than Prime Minister Johnson if there was another delay.

European leaders have all but officially rejected the prime minister’s revised withdrawal deal. Leo Varadkar, prime minister of the Republic of Ireland, said on Tuesday night: “I think it’s going to be very difficult to secure an agreement by next week, quite frankly.”

On Monday night, a well-placed source in Number 10 told The Spectator that: “The negotiations will probably end this week.”

A Downing Street source said that following a telephone call between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, it was apparent that “a deal is essentially impossible not just now but ever”.

Chancellor Merkel was reported to have said that “the UK cannot leave without leaving Northern Ireland behind in a customs union and in full alignment forever”.

“She made clear a deal is overwhelmingly unlikely and she thinks the EU has a veto on us leaving the Customs Union,” the source told media.

The prime minister has until October 19th to agree on an exit treaty with the bloc or be forced by the Benn Act to seek another delay. However, the prime minister has said that he would not ask to extend Article 50. The Number 10 source said that the government’s legal team is looking into loopholes in the Benn Act which would allow the UK to deliver Brexit, as promised, on October 31st.

Michael Gove, the minister in charge of Brexit preparations, said that the country was ready for a clean-break Brexit on October 31st.

Mr Gove wrote in his readiness report, which covers areas including medicine, travel, and trade, that “we can now confidently say that the UK is prepared to leave the EU without a deal on 31 October. It shows that we are ready to honour the promises that were made to the British people, and we will grasp the opportunities that so many voted for three years ago.”

On Wednesday, the Bank of England said that its financial systems were ready for a no-deal Brexit. The UK’s central bank said that temporary permissions, legislation, and other preparations have been made to “ensure that households and businesses will be able to use existing and new services from EU financial institutions”.

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