This feels very big: Boris Johnson spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at 8am this morning, and according to a Downing Street source, she told the prime minister that there will be no Brexit deal with the UK unless Northern Ireland is in the customs union “forever”.
The source says she repeated “forever” on “multiple occasions”.
So what she is saying is there can be no time-limited backstop.
And of course it is a wholesale rejection of Johnson’s offer to replace the backstop. “France is saying the same thing”, according to the source.
The government’s conclusion is that EU leaders have decided to make an example of the UK – to show that Johnson’s attempt to bin the painstakingly negotiated Withdrawal Agreement must inevitably lead to a worse deal for the UK.
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