British, Irish PMs to lock horns over Brexit stalemate

• Boris Johnson will meet his Irish counterpart for last-ditch Brexit talks on Thursday.
• Johnson will sit down with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at an undisclosed location in northwest England.
• The talks come with time running out to sign off on any agreement at an October 17-18.

 LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet his Irish counterpart for last-ditch Brexit talks on Thursday, with just days left to strike an EU divorce deal and both sides blaming each other for the impasse.

Johnson will sit down with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at an undisclosed location in northwest England following several days of recriminations over the failure to find an acceptable compromise.

"This will be a private meeting to allow both leaders and their teams to have detailed discussions," Johnson's Downing Street office said.

The talks come with time running out to sign off on any agreement at an October 17-18 European Union summit, ahead of Britain's scheduled departure from the bloc at the end of the month after nearly five decades of membership.

Johnson has vowed Britain will leave on October 31 with or without a deal -- despite MPs passing a law last month that requires him to seek another Brexit delay if he fails to secure a pact at the summit.

Varadkar told Ireland's parliament on Wednesday that he would work "until the last moment" to get a deal, but added: "certainly not at any cost."

'Blame game' 

After days of trading increasingly bitter accusations of inflexibility, the diplomacy appears to be intensifying in a late bid to find a breakthrough.

"The reason the prime minister is meeting Leo Varadkar is not simply just to have a social conversation," Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng told BBC radio.

"They are seriously focused on trying to resolve this issue and trying to get a deal on which basis we can leave the EU."

"We're coming to a situation where I think a deal is possible".

Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay will meet his EU counterpart Michel Barnier in Brussels on Friday.

"We've put forward serious proposals and have been willing to be flexible. Now it's time for the EU to do the same," Barclay said.

But Barnier struck a downbeat tone Wednesday, telling the European Parliament that "we're not on the point of envisioning and finding a deal".

And Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit coordinator, weighed in saying Britain's proposals were "not serious" and were aimed at starting a "blame game".

"The real traitor is he or she who risks bringing disaster upon his country and it's citizens, pushing the UK out of the EU," the former Belgian premier tweeted.

Irish border block

Johnson and Varadkar will focus their discussions on the Irish border -- the sticking point in tortuous negotiations that have dragged on for over two years.

Johnson claims his proposal provides a new way to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, and EU member Ireland after Brexit.

It would take Northern Ireland out of the EU's customs union along with the rest of the UK, but keep it largely aligned with the bloc's "single market" standards and regulations, subject to local consent in the province.

Brussels is adamant it will not agree to any plan that undermines the single market or leaves Ireland exposed.

Britain's gross domestic product contracted by 0.1 percent in August, the Office for National Statistics said, in a sign that the economy is struggling in the run-up to Brexit.

Economic activity fell back after rising by 0.4 percent in July. Some economists fear the country will fall into recession in the third quarter, after GDP fell by 0.2 percent in the second quarter, given the uncertainties surrounding Brexit.

Meanwhile England's Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies said people could die due to a no-deal Brexit.

"We cannot guarantee that there will not be shortages not only in medicines but technology and gadgets," she told BBC radio.

"And there may be deaths; we can't guarantee there won't."