Boris Johnson told: Give new Brexit plans by end of the month or EU talks are over

Boris Johnson has insisted he wants a Brexit deal
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Jacob Jarvis|Tim Baker18 September 2019
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Boris Johnson has been warned he must give the EU new plans for Brexit by the end of the month or talks with the bloc will be over.

Finland's Prime Minister, Antti Rinne, gave the ultimatum after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"If the UK wants to discuss alternatives to the existing Brexit agreement then these must be presented before the end of the month," said Mr Rinne, according to reports from Finland.

He continued that he felt European leaders were in agreement that should this not be the case talks would be "over".

Antti Rinne and Emmanuel Macron met in Paris
AFP/Getty Images

It comes after the PM held talks with European leaders on Wednesday, including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "This afternoon the Prime Minister spoke to European Commission President Juncker, European Parliament President Sassoli, Cypriot President Anastasiades, and Latvian Prime Minister Karins.

"The Prime Minister and President Juncker discussed the positive and constructive conversation they had in Luxembourg on Monday and their shared determination to reach a deal."

Previously, Mr Juncker said the "risk of a no deal is palpable".

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier also voiced the frustration of EU leaders, saying: “Some three years after the Brexit referendum we should not be pretending to negotiate.”

Finnish European affairs minister Tytti Tuppurainen also told MEPs: "The latest developments in Westminster and the call for a further extension make it very difficult to predict how things will unfold.

"We have to acknowledge that, currently, a no-deal on October 31 is a quite likely outcome."

As the stalemate continues, the PM is set to meet European Council President Donald Tusk for Brexit at the United Nations next week.

The pair will be in New York for a meeting of the UN General Assembly and plan to hold bilateral talks, according to Reuters.

There has been an impasse in talks with the PM insisting the contentious backstop arrangements must be scrapped - which the EU has said must be replaced by a viable alternative.

Mr Johnson has consistently said other options are available, though EU leaders have asked for concrete proposals.

Mr Juncker has called for the Prime Minister to come forward with “operable proposals, in writing” to deal with the Irish backstop deadlock.

Earlier this week a government source said that written proposals from the UK had been shown to the EU.

But they added that the papers were taken back by the British team before the end of the meetings to prevent leaks.

The source said: "Once you share it with 27 countries you are not in control of the document.”

There has been speculation that proposals will not be made until after the Conservative Party Conference on October 2.

This leaves just 15 days until the crunch European Council summit on October 17, where Mr Johnson hopes for a deal to be agreed.

And with Parliament prorogued - or suspended - until October 14, that would give MPs less than a week to scrutinise Mr Johnson’s suggestion.

The UK Supreme Court has been hearing appeals about the legality of the prorogation.

The Scottish Court of Session previously found that the suspension Parliament had been “unlawful”, while England's High Court said the move was political and not a matter for the judiciary.

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