>> the good friday agreement and the fact that goods have been able to flow unchecked, freely, across that border, has created a lot of not just prosperity, but a sense of stability for the communities on both sides of that order. for the past five, 10, 20 years since that agreement. anything seen as hindering or returning to the way things were before that good friday agreement is seen as potentially not just destabililizing, but touching off a lot of conflict in these communities. the reason some are saying that boris johnson's plan could amount to a breach of britain's own domestic laws is that in 2018, under britain's own

withdrawal act, it was a detailed clause that band -- this really was" -- order arrangements between the republic of ireland and northern ireland that would feature what is called physical infrastructure. now, physical infrastructure is fancy language for checks and border controls. that did not exist beforore exit day, before brexit day. essentially, cutting through the fine print off this plan, which we have not reread yet in its details, what seems to be the case and has not been denied by boris johnson or anyone right now in the conservative party, that doeoes presumably know this plan -- they do not deny that there would continue to be some checks or border controls, what theyeyo not belilieve there woud be of a nature to cause the type of instability along that border that i was talking about. they said there would be so to continuedntions --

regulatory alignment between northern irelaland and the e.u. for a four year period to essentially prevent any sort of hard border being reestablished. critics are going to look at it. skeptics are going to look at it. a lot of people on the european mainland will be looking at it, especially people in the republic of ireland. the prime minister, the deputy prime minister -- they are already extremely skeptical that this plan is workable as it has been presented by the e reportsn its broad outlines. they see thehe contours of a had border being r reestablished. for them, that is an absolute nonstarter. laura: that was going to be my next question. what has ireland had to say so far? >> the prime minister and deputy prime minister said earlier that according to the reports it was likely not good news. they said they will assess the detailed proposal when they get it. it goes to the e.u. first, not straight to the governments of other countries. it has to go through the negotiation team within the e.u.

he said he would not be too encouraged by the reports. if there are customs checks, he does not think that will be the basis for any agreement. that is the irish foreign minister's comments before the speech started. it is worth reminding ourselves what the e.u. says it's red lines are in this negotiation. they want a fully open border. they want to preserve the all-ireland economy, the integrity of the single market. that is where the regulatory rules come in. you cannot have the integrity of the single market preserved if there are not standards on the border. whatever solution the british government proposes, it must be legally operable. that means they can put it into attacks they can implement. that is what they will be looking for later on. we expect to have the e.u. examine this in an objective fashion. what we will be looking for is what kind of reaction we get from the european union later on.

i don't know whether there is progress to be made, things to be looked at. laura: it is interesting because boris johnson said he hoped brussels would find room to compromise to secure a deal. is there any chance of that happening? >> this has been boris johnson's signature political strategy -- this very bodacious optimism. repeatedly asserting that he sees a prosperous great future for britain, that anyone who opposes looking at this plan -- they are the obstructionists, the opposition. those on the e.u. continent. i i think the stratategy -- obviously, he is not going to explicitly state at. the reason a lot of people are not taking this strategy seriously is that at the end of the day y boris johnsnson is not seririously inteterested in thte deal. there is no illusion or delusion among many members of the conservative party that this is a workable deal. this is s more about exactly wht boris johnson was saying before.

it is about this ironclad adherence to this political pledge, get brexit done. leave. withoute, october 31, delving into the fine print. skeptics will save boris johnson is not interested in the fine print of a backstop deal or how to make it workable. he wants to deliver on brexit, come what may. the parliament has basically tried to forestall the idea of a no deal. they passed a law saying they would not crash out, that boris johnson would be legally obligated to seek an extension if two days after the european council which is coming up there was still no deal to be had. we are already seeing defiance on boris johnson's part, hinting there are already reports he might again suspend parliament next week.k. can he do that? perhaps. at the same time, signals emerging that he is perhaps determined to defy the will of parliament on this issue. obey that legal

obligation under the parliamentary law to seek an extension of brexit. he at one point said he would rather be dead in a dish -- ditch then go back to brussels and say we need more time. his over arcing political message, to reiterate, is get out of the european union on october 31, and this is why. that is, at the end of the day, what he is determined to do. a lot of people on the european continent say it is not a serious offer. he is not engaged in the details of negotiations, or what the actual outcome will be. what he is more preoccupied with is getting out, and then finding ways to shift the blame to those for failure to reach a deal, which he still said he is determined to have. he wants to have a deal. let there be no illusions. if there is no deal, he is ready and prepared to do a no deal. he got a lot of applause from people. are we ready for that? a lot of p people in the conference all clapped.

that is the political maneuvering, posturing. it is a message a lot of conservatives and almost all of the brakes at voters right >> now will endorse. >>rememberining the timetetablet is involved -- to renegotiate an international treaty, which is what the withdrawal agreement was -- getting it done the first time around took a long time, and the time is very short. that european council meeting -- october 17, october 18 -- even if this was a workable solution, that the european union could find a a way to comproromise ar, it would involve greater rewriting of the withdrawal agreement than there is physical planning to do between now and the end of october. it would have to be drafted, agreed. make sure it is legally operable , this guarantee the european union have insisted on. anything beyond a surgical changed of the withdrawal agreement could take an enormous amount of time, even if there was political agreement around it. the fact that this plan seems to be more than a simple change to

the one that had been floated around previously -- whether or not, for example, the u.k. would ask for a backstop instead of keeping the entire united kingdom in the customs union -- instead, it would keep just northern ireland, something originally proposed which theresa may had disagreed with. if you listen to people who are knocking around e.u. corridors for a long time, they say that could potentially be done in time. anything more major than that, there is a question whether it is possible. laura: our reporter is in london, listening in to boris johnson's speech. benedicte, whahais your take on w what boris johnsn has said so far? benedicte: this is the first actual speech by boris johnson as prime minister. it could be his final one. there is no way of knowing that right now. what he is doing is, on the one hand, rallying the troops,s, because there e is clearly a

generaral election comingg up. it is said thatat he wants one. he has lost his majority in parliament. he has lost control of business in parliament. he lost seven key votes in parliament. he has that damming judgment from the supreme court that prorogation was unlawful. parliament, in a complete break with convention, is sitting as we speak here in london, inn wewestminster. but he is also determined, he says, to seek a deal. but the country is ready for no deal. i understand boris johnson will be speaking to president juncker this afternoon, just as the u.k. government formally tables its first formal proposals for brexit, for a brexit deal. but it is clear that his message, not just at the conference in manchester, but to the whole of the united kingdom and the rest of the e.u. -- take and accept this new deal that we are proposing, or accept that

there will be no deal. terms of his negotiating, i understand the hope of the u.k. government is to go into what negotiators llll a tunnenel. parties, inwhehen two this case the u.k. government ,nd the main e.u. negotiator start having intensive meetings to really work o on details. it would be in that stretch of the next 10 days, leading up to that 17th and 18th e.u. summit in brussels. laura: what is the feeling like there? i am sure even boris johnson was saying in his speech when he began -- it seems for many people in the u u.k., the britih are just tired of brexit and wanted to be done. isyou think that fed upness enough to get people to back boris johnson on this? is interestingg

because on the one hand that is very much the message. let's be clear. forrest johnson is clearly aiming at the people of the united kingdom -- clearly not ort leavers, but also remain -- remainers. he says after three and a half years, people are tired of brexit. they want people to move on. he is clearly appppealing to everyone, not just the 17.4 million who voted in favor back in the summer of 2016, in favor of b brexit, but to those pepeoe who are exasperated, those businesses who cannot make proper i investment deals, who e investing in a lot of preparedness. for small and medium enterprises, that is really difficult. laura: thank you. we are not -- we are now going to go to manchester to listen to

boris johnson. makingnson: they are capital and new technology. out of the e.u., we can do free ports, use tax regimes. the cruel shipment of live animals. [applause] mr. johnson: and yes, we will have those free-trade deals. you -- tire of telling just in the last few months,s, i have seen a shipbuilder that exports catamarans to mexico. cd's tot jason donovan north korea, if you can believe it. and we export this nigel faraj re-feed to north america -- nigel farage re-feed to north america. [laughter]

mr. johnson: anybody who travels abroad or across the world, there are countries that are yearning to engage with us, where we have old friendships and burgeoning new partnerships. and particularly in the .ommonwealth heckling from the front, interjecting from the front. you are quite right, the commonwealth, two point 4 billion people, the fastest-growing economies in the world. amazing opportunities. [applause] mr. johnson: and that is our vision for britain, a country mindset,pen, global insisting on free trade. a high wage, low tax, high skill, high productivity economy, with incomes rising fastest for those who are lowowt paid. we will unify the entire united kingdom through better

technology. a country where, provided you obey the laws and do no harm to ,thers, you can live your life and love whoever you choose. a country -- [applause] mr. johnson: : a country that leads the way with clean green technology, reducing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. a country that is happy about its future. that is the vision for the country we love. when the opposition finally screw their courage to the sticking point and agree to have an election, when the chickens finally wriggle from the hen coop where they are hiding, that is the vision for the country that we will put to the british people. and the choice is clear. we put up wages with the biggest expansion of the living wage for a generation.

corbyn -- [applause] -- corbynn: poor would like taxes for everyone. we back our superb armed forces around the world. and look after our veterans. corbyn has said he wants the armed forces disbanded. we want an australian-style points-based system. he does not even believe in immigration controls. ifif jeremy corbyn were allowed, he would whack up yoyour taxes,e would file up the economy, he would break up the alliance between great britain and the united states, and he would break up the united kingdom. we cannot allow it to happen. [applause] mr. johnson: it is worse than

that. it has become clear he is determined to frustrate brexit. ?hat do we want do we want more did their m delay? do we want to spend another billion pounds a month on e.u. membership? get brexit done. let's finally believe in ourselves and what we can do. this country has long been a pioneer. we inaugurated the steam age. the age of -- we lead the way in parliamentary democracy, in female emancipation. and with a whole world that succumbed to a different country fashion, this and this party, under a female prime minister, pioneered the ideas of free markets and privatization that spread across the planet. [applause]

mr. johnson: every one of those ideas -- every one of those ideas was controversial. every one of them was difficult. but we always had the courage as a country to be original, to do things differently, and now we are about to take another giant step to do something no one thought we could do, to reboot our politics, to relaunch ourselves into the world, and to dedicate ourselves again to the simple proposition that we are here to serve the democratic will of the british people. if we do that -- if we do that with optimism -- if we do that with optimism and confidence, we cannot go wrong. sensible, moderate, one nation, taxcutting conservative government. literally,y if not let ascend jeremy corbyn into orbit, where he belongs.

let's get brexit done. let's bring this country together. thank you very much. [applause] laura: british prime minister boris johnson speaking in manchester, wrapping up the annual conservative conference, unveiling his brexit plan. listening with me. as we were saying earlier, he has one goal in his mind. that is getting brexit done. stephen: p laid out his economic vision for the country he wants after brexit -- global, outward looking. talking about the potential for free-trade deals. talked about investing in infrastructure, investing in green technology. not anything really we have not heard before.

there is a question over how -- what sort of free-trade deal the u.k. might be able to secure. how long it will take to establish an economic relationship with the european union, one of the biggest challenges. that figure for membership of the e.u. largelely debunked. , 740 significantly less million pounds is a figure i have seen. our culligan british mediuium -- our colleagague in british medi. even if britain left the european union, , it is still making contributions to the end of 2020. under this plan, as we expected to be detailed, that transition extends to the end of 2021. it could potentially be more bills than that to pay. may convincevision people in the hall, but a lot of people in brussels and the european capital be wondering

what the detail of some of these proposals are. laura: let's take a step back and look at the world stage. the way we saw boris johnson on stage, there are similaritities with the mother world leader, donald trurump. > it has been said thahat dod trump p and boriss johnson haven a sense weaponized the w will of the peopople. that is, on both sides of the atlantic, we have seen thahat executive brananch of power -- when they are held to account, when they are questioned by another branch of government, or by a court legally, it is not a normal part anymore of the checks or balances. it is not a normal part of the democratic process playing itself out. it is rather something where it itikes a populist message, is weaponized by boris johnson and donald trump, where it is your own elected representatives trying to thwart your will, trying to prevent your will from being done. in the case of boris johnson, we

saw that landmark historic decision by the supreme court in the u.k. a week ago, in which they basically unanimously, 11-0, voted it was unlawful for boris johnson to suspend parliament at such a crucial moment in british history. regardless of his reasons, it was deemed by the judges to be unlawful because it was essentially preventing the parliamentarians from debating, from convening to debate an extremely critical issue. that was the effect of boris johnson's decision, even if he denies that was his intent. just to repeat, boris johnson has made it clear there is already talk of trying to defy the will of that supreme court i trying to re-suspend parliament. there have been reports in the u.k. that that is a possibility. in the united states, we have a parallel situation which also involves this sense of a very populist leader trying to undermine the norms of liberal

democracies as they have been in the postwar order, trying to play one branch against eaeach other. launchedchment inquiry by the speaker of the house this week, nancy pelosi -- she basically -- that is being pitched as some sort of vendetta against the president. donald trump is trying to see this as a treasonous act ahead of the committee. that would be overseeing or leading a lot of that inquiry. it is being pitched by donald trump as traitorous, as a spy, as treasonous. even hinted this week that the whistleblower who brought these complaints to bear -- hinting that they are traders who could be punishable by death. -- populist leaders undermining, undercutting their own branches of democratic government. slightly different systems on each side of the atlantic, but the same sort of effect, this weaponization of the will of the people, trying to embrace the

people's will against their own elected representatives. we have seen that same type of language on both sides -- traders, spies. 's whojohnson calllled mp oppose him collaborators. similar language, similar messages, a similar populist residents on both sides of the atlantic. laura: let's wrap up this half hour. we went into this listening to boris johnhnson saying he is gog to unveil his new plan. now that we have heard him speak, what do we know?? stephen: what we are getting is a little more detail on confnfirming elements ofof that reporting that we e had before e speech. one of the big premises or strengthen has made is that there will be no tax at or near the border between northern ireland and ireland, but no word on where the checks will take place. although he has committed to regulatory alignment, staying within the e.u. rulebook in certain sectors between ireland

and northern ireland, he has said the u.k. will be able to negotiate trade deals. that means there have to be custom checks done somewhere, and we don't know where. the reports we had before this speech suggest that those checks would be done away from the border, but within maybe 10 kilometers of the physical border. no more information on that in the speech. we will be waiting for the technical text that is going to the european union. today, he did i insist there wod be respect for the good friday peace agreement. he talked about a role for the northern ireland executive and assembly in giving consent to ststing withinin those e e.u. rs or not after a c certain p peri. it is worth remembering the northern ireland executive has not functioned since january of 2017, so it would be difficult to see exactly how that would work. for the moment, he is calling it a compromise. he does feel the u.k. is moving in their proposition. the u.k. would have to effect that. he did say the alternative to this proposal is no deal. we are seeing a bit of an

ultimatum for boris johnson. he is due to speak jean-claude juncker later this afternoon, presumably a after they had a chance to look at the details of this proposal. stephen, andyou, doug herbert. we will take a quick break at me back in just a few minutes with more on brexit and the rest of the world news. don't go away. ♪ ♪

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