Boris Johnson 'on brink of Brexit deal' after border concessions

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Boris Johnson 'on brink of Brexit deal' after border concessions

Negotiators understood to have agreed in principle to customs border down Irish Sea

Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Jon Henley in Paris
Tue 15 Oct 2019 16.13 BST
First published on Tue 15 Oct 2019 16.04 BST

Boris Johnson appears to be on the brink of reaching a Brexit deal after making major concessions to EU demands over the Irish border.

A draft treaty could now be published on Wednesday morning, according to senior British and EU sources.

It is understood that the negotiating teams have agreed in principle that there will be a customs border down the Irish Sea. The arrangement was rejected by Theresa May as a deal that no British prime minister could accept.

Johnson will still have to win over parliament – including the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) and the hardline Tory Brexiters, the European Research Group – on the basis that, under the deal, Northern Ireland will still legally be within the UK’s customs territory.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/15/boris-johnson-close-to-brexit-deal-after-border-concessions

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Northern Ireland would de jure be in the UK's customs territory but de facto in the European Union's

WTF? Sounds like a recipe for smuggling (profitable for the Real IRA etc.) and something the DUP wouldn't accept. Unless they really just want to say "we rejected May's deal only because we hate her".