Brexit: Boris Johnson’s government ‘lying to public’ about state of EU negotiations

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The British government has been accused of lying to the public back at home about the state of progress in Brexit negotiations in Brussels.

It comes as leaks from Downing Street suggest that the prime minister’s chief of staff Dominic Cummings described talks as “a sham” in internal strategy meetings.

Additionally, the attorney general Geoffrey Cox warned the prime minister it was a “complete fantasy” to think the EU would ditch the backstop, according to accounts reported by the Daily Telegraph.

But the UK government’s public position has been to claim that there is a realistic chance of the Irish backstop being removed from the withdrawal agreement – and even going as far as to “intensify” talks.

The supposed “intensification” has bemused officials in Brussels because the UK has not yet used any of its meetings to present any concrete proposals.

Downing Street claims the leaks in which talks were described as a “sham” are not true and based on “unsubstantiated claims” – but they square accurately with the impression of the negotiations being formed by officials in the EU capital.

One EU source told The Independent: “They are just lying now about the talks in Brussels.”

The European Commission publicly signalled on Monday that the UK has not presented any new concrete proposals to the EU, despite a round of meetings last week and plans for more this week.

“We are willing to work constructively with Prime Minister Johnson to look at any proposals, any concrete proposals that he may have as long as they are compatible with the Withdrawal Agreement,” a spokesperson for the Commission told reporters on Monday.

“Discussion at technical level will continue with the UK [negotiator] David Frost in Brussels in the Commission this week.

“There were no meetings since last week. The meetings are resuming this week. During the weekend there have been no new developments on our side.

The spokesperson added that any new proposals “will depend on when we receive concrete proposals that are in line with the Withdrawal Agreement”.

Former chancellor Philip Hammond told the BBC on Tuesday morning: “There are no substantive negotiations going on.”

Another leaked document from the start of the week showed that government commissioned experts had found flaws and issues with every “alternative arrangement” proposal they had considered to replace the backstop.

Sky News reported that a draft version of the UK’s revised protocol for the backstop was merely the old protocol, with the sections referring to the backstop crossed out.