Brexiteers draw up 'shopping list' of extra demands after Boris’ backstop breakthrough

BREXITEERS are drawing up a shopping list of extra demands to seek from Brussels after Boris managed to secure a ray of hope from the EU on a new Brexit deal.

The PM's first foreign trips to Germany and France proved fruitful as the two EU leaders vowed to give Boris 30 days to come up with solutions to the Brexit backstop dilemma.

And Emmanuel Macron admitted for the first time that the Withdrawal Agreement may be able to be tweaked.

Boris has said he will get to work drawing up detailed solutions for the Irish border – which will win him vital time in Parliament too.

But Brexiteers are seeking to take advantage of the hope offered in Europe by drawing up a shopping list of other things they want to see from a possible new Brexit deal.

David Davis said yesterday he would back the deal if the backstop was removed – but it would also depend on what else was in it.

And he told the Telegraph: "I’d argue for contingency on the money. I’d argue for tighter limits, timetable limits, sunset clauses on ECJ and things like that. I’d have a small shopping list.

"It wouldn’t be a ridiculous one, but one I think that any serious European Parliament and any European Council that wants a deal could go with.

"If I were doing this for Boris, I would be insistent on is that they make the bill – the £39 billion, the second half of it – contingent on progress on the future economic partnership."

And long-standing Brexiteer Bill Cash also said we should be fighting for more concessions.

Sir Bill warned: "You can't restore self-government as a cut and paste operation and I am sure they understand that – taking parts of the withdrawal agreement.

"We will be governed for a number of years by the other 27 member states under the existing draft withdrawal agreement… even with the backstop removed."

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has blasted Boris for going for a re-heated version of Theresa May's Brexit deal.

He doesn't think Boris will be able to get us out before October 31 as he's promised – or will go for an "all out amended withdrawal agreement that will effectively leave us tied to the European Union for many years to come".

Top Tory MP insists we don't need Brexit backstop – and he's got the solution

TOP TORY MP Greg Hands insists that the hated Brexit backstop isn't needed – and his plan to solve the problem will work.

Greg Hands wrote in the Daily Mail that he was "delighted" to hear of the EU's invitation for alternatives to solve the tricky issue of the Irish border.

He's been working with border and customs experts and logistics workers to hammer out a plan that might be able to replace it.

A series of administrative and technological solutions is possible, he said, and they all exist at other border around the world.

A trusted trader scheme similar to the one used between the US and Canada would work here, Mr Hands said.

"These allow firms to cut down on paperwork and avoid routine customs checks at the border.

"We also recommended food and animal checks away from the border, and if the regimes on plant and animal regulations diverge, mobile units to carry out sanitary and phytosanitary checks far from the sensitive frontier."

A special economic zone could be set up in Ireland and Northern Ireland too.

"It won't be easy, but as Boris Johnson told a smiling Mrs Merkel: 'Wir schaffen das' – we can do it," he said.

The Sun reported today that the 30 day limit will likely give Boris the time he needs to try and face down a vote of no confidence in the Commons.

Tories will be unwilling to try and bring him down if he's in the middle of a negotiation with Europe in any way.

One ex-Cabinet minister said: Boris needs to be given a chance to get a new deal.

"Most Tories in the Rebel Alliance will be reluctant to be the obstruction to that by acting prematurely.

"But when the 30 days that Merkel has given him are up, that’s a different matter."

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