But will the proposals be enough to end the political stalemate that has crippled the UK for over three years?
Sputnik spoke with UKIP leader Richard Braine for more.
Sputnik: Will Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal be approved by the EU?
Richard Braine: To my mind, the deal doesn’t differ enough from Theresa May’s disgraceful surrender instrument, but from what I understand some of the measures in the deal that he’s offering are unlikely to be accepted by the EU.
Frankly I’ll be pleased about that, because my view is that until we’ve actually really left without a specific EU deal, of course don’t forget we have lots of other deals, so to call it “no deal” is really a lie; but my view is that that is the best way for us to leave.
We will have a much stronger negotiating position once we have successfully left. The reason I think that is because if we do leave in that way; the sky will not fall in and in fact, the UK will do fine, I often nickname it “Y2K Two” for that reason.
All the gloom and doom that has been talked about, very little of it will either come true or matter very much, and so once we are in a strong position having left, and it is shown that we will do perfectly well having left, then I think the urgency, the need of the EU to sustain their high level of exports to us will be the driving factor.
We have a huge trade deficit with the EU and we know that Germany right now is going into a recession, so I think that the EU will be forced for commercial imperatives, to get on and do what they should have done long ago, which is a fair and reasonable agreement with the UK, hopefully, to continue very much as before.
Article twenty-four of GATT does enable countries to continue trade while they negotiate future arrangements, so that would enable us simply to continue trading with the EU as we currently do, and of course the EU in its negotiating tactics, has shown no interest in that kind of arrangement really, in fact I think it was Theresa May who really rejected that two years ago, but that is an outcome that I think would be very satisfactory, andI don’t think we will be offered any sort of sensible deal, until we’ve actually left.
Sputnik: Has the issue of the Irish border been weaponised?
Richard Braine: People forget that that border already is a border. It’s a border for currency and it’s a border for taxation, clearly it doesn’t need to have any great infrastructure there to be a border in those senses, and also in terms of trade and import-exports; these days so much of trade between countries, whether it is in the EU or outside the EU, is handled just electronically with forms, emails and just basic standard people work that people have to deal with, we do it to export to large amounts of countries outside the EU, which shows that we are already geared up to do it.
I think that the EU has been using the Northern Ireland border very unhelpfully, probably against its own constitution by the way, because the EU is committed to facilitate trade wherever possible in sensible ways of behalf of its member states and EU businesses, and in this case; I think the EU has been going against its constitution by essentially constructing or confecting trade barriers and trade difficulties that need not be there.
Sputnik: Is criticism from Labour Party and Liberal Democrats direct towards Boris Johnson unfair?
Richard Braine: Eighty-five percent of voters voted for MPs who stood in 2017 on manifestos which said they would really leave the EU. Those MPs in the Commons generally, instead of doing what they promised to do in that general election; have done the opposite, they said that they would facilitate and make Brexit happen, and they’ve actually spent the last two or three years contriving every possible obstacle that they could imagine to doing what they promised.
The hypocrisy is grotesque and for them to criticise Boris on that ground, is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in British politics ever, they are the ones, the MPs in the House of Commons, who have stood in the way of democracy by refusing to do what they promised us, the voters they would do to get elected.