Boris Johnson set for Brexit deadlock after admitting no progress made with EU withdrawal agreement

New PM was booed in Scotland, where first minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was clear he was pursuing a ‘hardline’ no-deal outcome

Boris Johnson looks set for a summer of Brexit deadlock after admitting he has made no headway in persuading EU leaders to reopen the withdrawal agreement signed by Theresa May but rejected three times by parliament.

The prime minister rejected the claim by Michael Gove – the minister he has put in charge of no-deal preparations – that the government is now working on the assumption of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

He claimed there was “ample scope” for negotiations to rewrite Ms May’s deal by removing the controversial Irish backstop – something the EU have said they will not do. And he said he was ready to “go the extra thousand miles” to get a deal.

But he acknowledged that after he set out the UK’s position to European leaders including Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, there was “no change in their position” that last November’s agreement will not be revised.

And Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, speaking after meeting Mr Johnson for the first time since he became PM last week, said it was clear that in reality he was pursuing a “hardline” no-deal outcome. The UK crashing out with no agreement in place was “almost inevitable”, she said.

Downing Street indicated that the UK was making European readiness to shift position a precondition for new negotiations on Brexit, setting up the possibility that no meaningful talks will take place until the summit of EU leaders in Brussels on 17 October, just two weeks before Brexit day.

Mr Johnson was booed and heckled by anti-Brexit protesters in Edinburgh as he ventured north of the border on the latest leg of his tour of what he has termed the “awesome foursome” of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

And despite adopting the title Minister for the Union as a mark of his determination to keep the UK together, he was left in no doubt that a no-deal outcome risked increasing pressure for a second referendum on Scottish independence.

The visit took place as a new Brexit “war cabinet”, created by Mr Johnson and codenamed XS, held the first of its fortnightly meetings to discuss EU withdrawal strategy with 94 days to go to the scheduled departure date. A second committee, called XO, chaired by Mr Gove and tasked with preparing for no deal, begins its daily meetings on Tuesday.

Visiting the Faslane naval base on the Clyde, Mr Johnson insisted his contacts with EU leaders had been “very, very positive”.

“They all know where we are, we can’t accept the backstop, it was thrown out three times, it won’t work, the withdrawal agreement as it stands is dead. I think everybody gets that,” he said.

“But there is ample scope to do a new deal and a better deal.

“But at the same time it is right, as the government has said for the last three years, to prepare for no-deal and we’re also going to be doing that very actively and with great confidence.”

Asked if Mr Gove was right to say the government was now working on the assumption of no deal, the prime minister replied: “No, absolutely not. My assumption is that we can get a deal, we are aiming for a deal.”

But the pound dropped to its lowest level against the US dollar since March 2017 as currency traders appeared to concur with Mr Gove’s assessment rather than the prime minister’s.

The fall in sterling came after the CBI warned that neither the UK nor the EU were prepared for the disruption that a no-deal Brexit would cause.

Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon shake hands outside Edinburgh’s Bute House (PA)

And Ms Sturgeon said: “In reality, he is really pursuing a no-deal Brexit because that is the logic of the hardline position that he has taken.

“I think that’s extremely dangerous for Scotland, indeed for the whole of the UK. It is incumbent on all of us who think that that is the wrong outcome to do everything we possibly can to block it.”

Ms Sturgeon told Mr Johnson that the Scottish Parliament will continue after the summer break to consider a bill to enable a second independence referendum, and said it would not be democratic for him to try to block it.

Scottish Tory MP Douglas Ross retorted: “The SNP have tried to block Brexit at every turn, using it to promote their own independence agenda and making a no-deal outcome more likely.

“The only way to get a good Brexit deal for the whole of the United Kingdom is to be fully prepared to leave without one – the SNP have failed to fulfil their responsibility to ensure Scotland is prepared for all eventualities.”

Meanwhile, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, made clear she would not back no deal, pointedly noting that – less than a week after Mr Johnson’s cabinet bloodbath – her elected post meant the prime minister was not in a position to sack her.

And foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, indicated that the government was ready to impose direct rule in Northern Ireland to avoid a “vacuum” in the case of a no deal.