UK PM Johnson’s spokesman: Need more realism from EU on scale of change from UK’s departure

“We are fully committed to implementing the Withdrawal Agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman reiterated on Monday. 

Additional takeaways

“We will continue to work with the EU in a joint committee to resolve outstanding issues with the Northern Ireland protocol.”

“As a responsible government, we cannot allow the peace process or the UK’s internal market to inadvertently be compromised by unintended consequences of the protocol.”

“We are taking limited and reasonable steps to clarify specific elements of the Northern Ireland protocol in domestic law to remove any ambiguity.”

“These limited clarifications deliver on the commitments the government made in the general election manifesto.”

“The government is completely committed, as it always has been, to implementing the Northern Ireland protocol in good faith.”

“If we don’t take these steps we face the prospect of legal confusion at the end of the year and potentially extremely damaging defaults.”

“We are making minor clarifications in extremely specific areas to ensure that, as we implement the protocol, we are doing so in a way that allows ministers to always uphold and protect the Good Friday peace agreement.”

“We have been having good discussions with the EU on the implementation of the protocol.”

“It will be for the UK government to determine when it sets out is plans in relation to subsidies, setting it out is not in the scope of any typical free trade deal.”

“We are not going to be a high subsidy regime after the transition period.”

“We continue to work hard to secure a deal and believe that is possible, but pm is confident we will flourish if we leave on an Australia-style deal.”

“PM is clear the UK and the EU need to make progress this week in talks.”

“If the agreement is to be had, need more realism from the EU on the scale of change from UK’s departure.”

Market reaction

The GBP/USD struggles to stage a meaningful recovery following these comments. As of writing, the pair was down 0.87% on the day at 1.3166.