Boris Johnson has said that if he is made Prime Minister, he will need EU co-operation to avoid a hard border and devastating tariffs in the event of the UK leaving without a deal.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the former foreign secretary criticised the UK negotiating team for creating the backstop to prevent a hard border in Ireland, saying that in doing so, the UK became “authors of our own incarceration”.
Johnson insisted in his interview with BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg that it would be possible to broker a new deal between the UK and EU before the October deadline.
He said the current deal negotiated by Theresa May is dead but said the “politics has changed so much since 29 March” that he would be able to negotiate a new deal.
“I think on both sides of the Channel there’s a really different understanding of what is needed,” Johnson said.
Continuing on the topic of the Irish border, Johnson said there is no one solution to the border checks that a no-deal would necessitate, but rather he said there was “abundant, abundant technical fixes” that could be made to avoid border checks.
