Johnson to raise Brexit stakes in Berlin, Paris

Bloomberg

Boris Johnson will travel to Germany and France this week to make clear that Britain is leaving the European Union on October 31 with or without a deal.
The prime minister will tell German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that the EU must offer a new deal or face Britain leaving the bloc without one.
The British Parliament “will not, and cannot, cancel the referendum,” his office said in a statement.
Johnson will visit Berlin and Paris on August 21 and August 22 in his first overseas trip since becoming leader. The visit comes ahead of the Group of Seven summit in France.
His warning comes amid a report that the government is preparing for a three-month “meltdown” at British ports, a hard Irish border and shortages of food and medicine. These represent the “most likely aftershocks” of a no-deal Brexit, according to the Sunday Times, which cited leaked government documents. Michael Gove, the cabinet minister in charge
of no-deal planning, said “Operation Yellowhammer” represented a “worst-case scenario.”
Economic Hit Britain is heading for a no-deal Brexit at a time when fears are mounting for the global economy as the trade clash between China and the US escalates.
The pound fell to its lowest levels since the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit vote this month and the UK economy shrank for the first time in more than six years between April and June. Johnson is under growing pressure to recall Parliament from its summer recess to discuss the Brexit crisis.
The EU has ruled out renegotiating the thrice-rejected deal it struck with his predecessor, Theresa May.
The agreement stalled in parliament over how to keep the Irish border open, with the EU insisting on a “backstop” that would tie Britain closely to the bloc.
The standoff leaves opponents of a no-deal Brexit just weeks to find a way to stop Britain crashing out of the bloc, an event that business leaders and many economists say would trigger economic chaos.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, renewed his appeal to lawmakers opposed to a no-deal departure to let him head a caretaker government, a proposal that has so far failed to gain widespread support.
“My message to MPs across Parliament is simple and urgent: only by working together can we stop no-deal,” Corbyn told the Observer newspaper.
“Three years after the EU referendum, the country stands at a precipice. Boris Johnson has become prime minister without any popular mandate.
He has no right to drive our country off a cliff and into the arms of Donald Trump with his no-deal fixation.”
The Mail on Sunday meanwhile cited a leaked letter in which Johnson accused those trying to stop a no-deal Brexit of making it harder to reach a new deal with the EU.