Boris Johnson has vowed to double down on attempts to secure a new Brexit deal in the coming weeks, with Downing Street insisting the “priority” was to avoid leaving the bloc without a deal.
The prime minister is seeking a fresh solution to the Irish border issue, which derailed three attempts by his predecessor Theresa May earlier this year to push a deal through parliament.
Mr Johnson met Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, on Monday and will hold talks with Arlene Foster, leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party, and her deputy Nigel Dodds, on Tuesday afternoon in Number 10.
A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Johnson would be talking to other European leaders in the coming weeks to try to find a deal that other parties could support.
“We are now seeing progress beginning to take place but there is still a long way to go,” he said. “It is going to take a lot of hard work to be able to conclude or reach a deal at that summit in mid-october.”
The UK government has insisted that the Irish backstop, designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, must be abolished. Instead officials have been floating the idea of an arrangement based on checks on agrifoods alone, along with different measures such as trusted trader schemes and new technology, but Dublin and Brussels have voiced skepticism about the plan.
The spokesman also denied speculation that the UK could be seeking to return to the EU’S proposal for a Northern Irelandonly backstop, which is opposed by the DUP.
But the DUP’S influence over the Conservative party may have waned in recent days, because its power came from giving the Tories an effective majority in the House of Commons — which it has now lost.
“The Tory party is no longer dependent on the DUP for its majority, it doesn’t have a majority,” said Nick Boles, a former Conservative minister who now sits as an independent MP.
