With just three months until the Brexit Halloween deadline, all eyes are on newly appointed Prime Minister Boris Johnson and how he would negotiate a smooth transition for the United Kingdom out of the European Union. However, over his past couple of weeks in office he hasn’t made any formal attempt to negotiate. Instead, his rhetoric is centered on how he would most definitely take the UK out of the EU by October 31.
European officials now appear to expect that Johnson would not even try to negotiate. The UK Prime Minister previously said he won’t consider coming to the negotiation table until the EU removes the Irish backstop from the Withdrawal Agreement. With over half a year of active talks Theresa May was not able to find an alternative plan to that which the EU would support, but now Johnson expects to get it for granted.
Even with a recent proposal from the DUP, who are allied with the Tories in a minority government, seems to have been ignored as Johnson doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to begin discussing it with the EU.
UK politicians are also quite pessimistic right now, since they cannot do anything to stop Johnson. According to UK law, even if Johnson’s cabinet loses a vote of confidence and a new general election is called, at the earliest it could happen on October 31 (Brexit day), which is already too late. Unless the UK signs an agreement before October 31, they will automatically leave on Halloween.
