Brexit talks between Britain and the European Union teetered on the verge of collapse on Tuesday, with tit-for-tat claims of intransigence and sabotage before an end-October deadline.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as he tried to salvage new divorce terms he has proposed ahead of next week’s pivotal EU summit in Brussels.
Unusually, Downing Street then provided a readout of what Merkel allegedly said, provoking an incendiary tweet from EU Council President Donald Tusk.
According to London, Merkel demanded a rewrite of Britain’s approach to the long-vexing Irish border problem that made a compromise “essentially impossible”.
The Downing Street official quoted Merkel as saying that a deal now looked “overwhelming unlikely”, and added that the Brexit talks were “close to breaking down”.
Source: Guadian Newspaper
