Britain and the European Union are engaged in a public blame game after Brexit talks stood on the brink of collapse after a row between Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel. No 10 sources said that the German chancellor’s demands for Northern Ireland to stay in a customs union with the EU after Brexit meant that a deal was “essentially impossible, not just now but ever”. In response, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, criticised Mr Johnson directly on Twitter: “What’s at stake is not winning some stupid blame game. At stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people. “You don’t want a deal, you don’t want an extension, you don’t want an extension,…

Source: The Times October 08, 2019 11:10 UTC