Boris Johnson will present the EU with a take-it-or-leave-it Brexit offer on Wednesday with a fresh warning that he will not tolerate delay beyond October 31.
The prime minister will use his speech at the Tory conference in Manchester to vow that “we can, we must and we will” quit the European Union by the Halloween deadline agreed earlier this year.
Crucially, Johnson is expected to signal that if Brussels fails to immediately engage with his new proposals he will break off all negotiations and go straight for a no-deal exit.
It came as The Telegraph reported a Johnson is poised to propose radical new ‘two borders for four years’ Brexit plan which will leave Northern Ireland in a special relationship with Europe until 2025.
Claiming that voters feel they are being “taken for fools” by Westminster by the continued parliamentary deadlock, Johnson will make plain that he will under no circumstances negotiate a further delay at the EU summit on October 17.
The tough stance, which may be greeted by Brussels as crowd-pleasing political bluster, came as Johnson tried to get his conference message back on track to its ‘Get Brexit Done’ slogan after days of being dogged by questions about his personal conduct.
He will effectively signal his defiance of the Commons’ recent passing of the Benn Act, legislation aimed at preventing him taking the UK out of the EU without a deal unless he has the consent of parliament.
In his speech, he will say: “Voters are desperate for us to focus on their other priorities - what people want, what leavers want, what remainers want, what the whole world wants - is to move on.”
A senior Number 10 official said: “The government is either going to be negotiating a new deal or working on no deal — nobody will work on delay. We will keep fighting to respect the biggest democratic vote in British history.”
But in a message aimed directly at MPs who want to enforce the Benn Act, the source added: “The EU is obliged by EU law only to negotiate with member state governments, they cannot negotiate with parliament, and this government will not negotiate delay.”
The remark is a fresh clue that No.10 believes its way to bypass the legislation is to rely on EU law which stipulates its treaties are negotiated between heads of government rather than individual parliaments.
Johnson will also launch an attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming that the Labour leader “wants to turn the whole of 2020..into the chaos and cacophony of two more referendums” on Brexit and on Scottish independence.
“Can you imagine another three years of this? That is the Corbyn agenda - stay in the EU beyond October 31, paying a billion pounds a month for the privilege, followed by years of uncertainty for business and everyone else,” he will say.