Boris Johnson must extend Brexit talks for another YEAR, major Tory Party donor demands – Express

Boris Johnson has repeatedly refused to extend Brexit any further as the Prime Minister has vowed to get trade talks done by December 31, 2020. But Mr Johnson is facing calls to delay following the coronavirus pandemic which have made trade negotiations challenging. The Conservative Party's leading donor, Alexander Temerko, has said to extend for at least one year.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Temerko said: "We need a lift. It might be very slowly but very bravely.

"We definitely need to open businesses, maybe restaurants and hotels and return business to construction.

"That is very important today.

"On May 7, we need to start lifting the lockdown."

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He added: "Michael Gove, Boris and Alok Sharma totally agree that we need to use our national business to create new capacity for fighting this virus."

Mr Temerko went on to give his advice on Brexit.

He said: "We don't know what kind of rule will be when we leave Europe.

"If we leave Europe, the situation will be tougher.

"My advice is to extend for one year. It's not to continue the Remain idea, I think it would be better for the economy."

Zoom drinks and informal chats could be the way of breaking the post-Brexit trade deadlock, according to insiders.

The first two rounds of trade negotiations between the UK and European Union teams have so far been conducted online via video-conferencing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But insiders said that while there were efficiency benefits to online working, the ability to "take people off for a coffee and talk stuff through" had been lost without face-to-face contact.

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And with social distancing measures likely to be in place until a COVID-19 vaccine is discovered, both sides are said to want to find "new ways" of establishing informal conversations in a bid to break the current deadlock.

Briefing reporters on Thursday about the progress of the virtual talks, a source close to the UK negotiating team said: "The downside is you can't take people off for a coffee and talk stuff through and have the informal discussions.

"We'll have to find ways of replicating that. We'll have to do it by video-conference, by phone and by other ways and we're going to have to be tolerant of each other.

"Obviously it is still possible to have the conversations, what's more difficult to replicate is the atmospherics.

"But that doesn't mean you can't do it and we will aim to do it over the next couple of months."

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Boris Johnson must extend Brexit talks for another YEAR, major Tory Party donor demands - Express