The European Union isn’t taking Boris Johnson’s threats to walk away from seven months of trade negotiations at face value.
On Friday, his deadline for deciding whether to continue discussions or walk away, the prime minister blamed the EU. He said the U.K. will prepare to leave the bloc’s single market at the year-end without a trade agreement in place. But he twice swerved questions about whether he would break off the talks.
The EU should "only come to us if there is some fundamental change of approach,” Johnson said in a televised statement. One of his spokespeople later described the trade discussions as "over” and said the bloc’s negotiators should only come to London on Monday if they are prepared to offer concessions, intensify talks, and work on the actual text of an accord.