RELAX, MONSIEUR BARNIER: There’s apparently no need for the EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier to work through August. Britain’s new prime minister does not want “to be sat down and told that the EU cannot possibly reopen the Withdrawal Agreement,” said a spokeswoman for Boris Johnson. “That is the message he has been giving to leaders when he has spoken to them on the telephone so far,” she added. “The PM wants to leave with a deal, and we hope that the EU will change their position.”
Translation: Unless Brussels is ready to reopen the divorce papers, Boris Johnson won’t even bother coming to town. The answer’s been in since last week. The Commission pointed to its own preparedness documents on Monday.
Johnson’s three-way Brexit phone number library standoff: Charlie Cooper and Annabelle Dickson have the analysis of the impasse, with all sides waiting on the others to move first.
Scotland problems: Johnson had a bad Monday in Scotland, booed by an angry crowd as he met First Minister Nicola Sturgeon — before the pair held a rancorous meeting over Brexit and the future of the U.K. Emilio Casalicchio has the details.
GOOD TUESDAY MORNING. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by an “unknown chemical agent,” his lawyer and doctor claimed on Monday. The FT has the write-up. Navalny himself, who was hospitalized Sunday after suffering what health officials claimed was an “allergic reaction” while in police custody, said in a blog post that authorities had behaved as if they had something to hide. “Do I think they could poison me?” he wrote, before going on to list reasons that point to a yes. He concluded: “For now, I can say with certainty just one thing: there really are rather stupid and foolish dudes in power in Russia.”
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