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Boris Johnson ready to settle for an Australia-style deal, as talks reach an impasse

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Here is the statement from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in full.

"From the outset we were totally clear that we wanted nothing more complicated than a Canada-style relationship based on friendship and free trade. To judge by the latest EU summit in Brussels, that won’t work for our EU partners. They want the continued ability to control our legislative freedom, our fisheries, in a way that is completely unacceptable to an independent country. And since we have only 10 weeks until the end of the transition period on 1 January, I have to make a judgement about the likely outcome and to get us all ready.

"And given that they have refused to negotiate seriously for much of the last few months and given that this summit appears explicitly to rule out a Canada-style deal, I’ve concluded that we should get ready for 1 January with arrangements that are more like Australia’s, based on simple principles of global free trade. And we can do it because we always knew that there would be change on 1 January whatever type of relationship we had. And so now is the time for our businesses to get ready and for our hauliers to get ready, for travellers to get ready.

"And, of course, we’re willing to discuss the practicalities with our friends where a lot of progress has already been made, by the way on such issues as social security and aviation, nuclear cooperation, and so on. But, for whatever reason, it’s clear from the summit that after 45 years of membership, they are not willing, unless there’s some fundamental change of approach, to offer this country, the same terms as Canada.

"And so with high hearts and with complete confidence, we will prepare to embrace the alternative and we will prosper mightily as an independent free trading nation controlling our own borders, our fisheries and setting our own laws. And in the meantime, the government will, of course, be focusing on tackling COVID and building that better so that 2021 is a year of recovery and renewal."

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