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UK PM to tell EU leaders to renegotiate deal

18 August 2019 13:15 (UTC +04:00)

Boris Johnson will tell EU leaders there needs to be a new Brexit deal when he makes his first trip abroad as PM later this week,APA reports citing BBC.

The UK will leave the EU on 31 October with or without a deal, he will insist. However No 10 said there will be "very little discussion" of Brexit during the meetings in France and Germany.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times has printed leaked government documents warning of food, medicine and fuel shortages in a no-deal scenario.

It says the Treasury paper on preparations for a no-deal Brexit, codenamed Operation Yellowhammer, reveals that the UK could also face months of disruption at its ports, while plans to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are unlikely to prove sustainable.

The dossier, reported by the Sunday Times, says leaving the EU without a deal could lead to:

Fresh food becoming less available and prices rising

A hard Irish border after plans to avoid checks fail, sparking protests

Fuel becoming less available and 2,000 jobs being lost if the government sets petrol import tariffs to 0%, potentially causing two oil refineries to close

UK patients having to wait longer for medicines, including insulin and flu vaccines

A rise in public disorder and community tensions resulting from a shortage of food and drugs

Passengers delayed at EU airports, Eurotunnel and DoverFreight disruption at ports lasting up to three months, caused by customs checks, before traffic flow improves to 50-70% of the current rate

The government said the document was not what it expected to happen, but outlined scenarios being looked at as part of its no-deal preparations.

A former head of the British civil service, Lord Bob Kerslake, described the document as "credible" and said it "lays bare the scale of the risks we are facing with no-deal Brexit in almost every area".

"These risks are completely insane for this country to be taking and we have to explore every avenue to avoid them," he told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House The leak comes as the prime minister prepares to travel to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday; he will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday.

Mr Johnson is expected to say Parliament cannot and will not change the outcome of the 2016 referendum and insist there must be a new deal to replace Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement - which was defeated three times by MPs - if the UK is to leave the EU with a deal.

However, it is thought their discussions will chiefly focus on issues such as foreign policy, security, trade and the environment, ahead of the G7 summit next weekend.