Boris Johnson pulls back from the Brexit brink: PM agrees to CONTINUE EU trade talks despite threatening to pull the plug with less than three weeks to go until the UK leaves - as supermarkets are told to begin preparing for No Deal panic-buying

Brexit talks will go to the 11th hour after Boris Johnson stepped back from the brink of a No Deal departure today.

The Prime Minister announced that deadlocked free trade talks would continue, after holding talks with European Commission president Ursula Von de Leyen this morning.

Mr Johnson had suggested that today was a hard deadline for both sides to either finally make an agreement after months of wrangling or prepare for a hard departure by Britain on December 31.

In a joint statement they said: 'We had a useful phone call this morning. We discussed the major unresolved topics.

'Our negotiating teams have been working day and night over recent days.

'And despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile.

'We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached.'

It came as UK supermarkets were told to start stockpiling supplies of vital foods and other necessities amid anic-buying fears ahead of a potential No Deal Brexit in less than three weeks' time.

There were huge queues in Kent outside Dover yesterday, following similar tailbacks at Calais on Friday, as retailers and suppliers began 'stock-building' amid rising gloom at the chances of a trade deal with Brussels.

There are fears of shortages of vegetables - which predominantly come from EU nations - for months at the start of 2021 if negotiators locked in last-gasp talks today fail to bridge a gaping chasm on fishing rights and trade rules.

The Prime Minister announced that deadlocked free trade talks would continue, after holding talks with European Commission president Ursula Von de Leyen (pictured today) this morning.

Lorries queuing on the A20 yesterday to enter the Port of Dover to board ferries to Europe as supermarkets began stockpiling food and other necessities

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab this morning suggested that EU intransigence was being driven by Brussels' being 'concerned Britain might do rather well' after leaving.

Ministers are keen to avoid scenes like those in March when people panic-bought toilet paper and other goods ahead of the firm Covid lockdown

Britain's chief negotiator David Frost and Britain's ambassador to the European Union Tim Barrow arrive at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels this morning

Boris Johnson has seized personal control of Britain's No Deal preparations as the deadline for historic talks with the EU expires today. The move comes as Government sources put the chances of negotiations failing as high as 80 per cent, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel being blamed for the European Union's hard line

Dominic Raab warns France its trawlers will have 'zero access' to British fish without a Brexit deal

France was told its fishing boats will have 'zero access' to British waters if there is a No Deal Brexit today - as a senior minister that the UK was preparing to ''enforce our waters'.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab fired a warning shot at Paris amid after it was revealed four Royal Navy gunboats were on standby to stop EU trawlers from January 1 if trade talks break down.

Reports also suggested that military helicopter surveillance will be made available and that ministers are considering beefing-up Navy powers in legislation to authorise them to board vessels and arrest fishermen found to be contravening post-Brexit rules.

The reports stoked a furious row within the Conservative Party, with Tobias Ellwood, the Tory chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, calling it 'irresponsible'.

Fishing rights in UK waters is one of the last remaining sticking points in the free trade talks that are on the brink of collapse.

The Government is refusing to bow to 'outlandish' demands led by France for EU vessels to be allowed the right to take a large quota of fish from British waters after the UK leaves on December 1.

But speaking on Ridge on Sunday today Mr Raab said: 'The bottom line is actually if we do leave on WTO terms we'll be an independent coastal state. Of course we're going to enforce our waters around fisheries and whatever else.

'And of course for the French and others, that will mean - you know, forget those outlandish terms that they were asking of us - their fishing industries would have zero access guaranteed.'

Earlier today Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had hinted that today's hard deadline could become softer.

He said you 'never say never' and highlighted that negotiations with Brussels have a tendency to 'drag and drift'.

He said there is 'a long way to go' to find a resolution on the two outstanding issues of fisheries and so-called level playing field 'ratchet' clause which would tie the UK to future EU standards.

But the former Brexit secretary added that discussions could continue past Sunday if Mr Johnson and Europe's top official are able to break the deadlock during their conversation.

The Cabinet minister told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: 'The bar is quite high for us to be able to keep talking.

'We would need at a political level a commitment to move on those two key issues.

'When you look at what I said at the start of the week, it is pretty similar to what I'm saying now, which is never say never because EU negotiations can often drag and drift.

'But actually we do need finality and therefore we need at the political level of Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, that there is clarity the EU will move on those two key issues. If we get that then there are still talks to be processed.'

But Labour lashed out at the late-stage wrangling, with a party spokesman saying: 'The Conservatives promised the British people that they had an oven-ready deal and that they would get Brexit done. The Government needs to deliver on that promise, get us the deal and allow us to move on as a country.'

Ministers have drawn up plans for a £10billion bailout package for sectors of the economy that are set to be badly hit in the worst-case scenario. They include farmers and food producers, chemical suppliers, the car industry and fishing fleets, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

A supermarket industry source told the Sunday Times: 'There was a conversation a week ago when ministers said prepare for No Deal. This weekend the message is that it's No Deal.

'Supermarkets and ministers are hugely worried about panic-buying. They saw what happened over Covid when people started hoarding toilet rolls and know how quickly it can go wrong.

'That will be nothing compared to what will happen. Meat supplies will be fine and fruit comes from South America but there are likely to be shortages of vegetables for three months.'

Last night Boris Johnson seized personal control of Britain's No Deal preparations as the deadline for historic talks with the EU expires today.

The move came as Government sources put the chances of negotiations failing as high as 80 per cent, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel being blamed for the European Union's hard line.

One source said that she was 'determined to make Britain crawl across broken glass' rather than reach a compromise.

The Prime Minister will hold further talks with European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen today with hopes of an agreement currently very low.

His Whitehall intervention is aimed at protecting vital supplies of food and medicines after January 1. He will head a new 'super-committee' to run alongside the existing No Deal preparation group chaired by Michael Gove.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab this morning suggested that EU intransigence was being driven by Brussels' fears of UK success in the future.

'He told Sky's Ridge on Sunday: 'I think the EU is concerned that actually Britain might do rather well once we leave the EU and is worried about the competitive advantage, even on the normal global rules that apply.'

Addressing reports of stockpiling he told Times Radio: 'We've got diversity of supply. Fifty per cent of UK food comes from within the UK. The concern expressed about, for example, about the effect on prices and tariffs; actually the increase is only about two per cent made up of potential tariff increases.

'It's much more likely to be affected by things like the cost of fuel and transportation but the bottom line is we're not going to see shelves running bare or any of the scaremongering stories we've heard.'

The Foreign Secretary said the UK had worked 'very hard' at a technical level during the recent negotiations in Brussels but argued that there needed to be political 'willing' to secure a Brexit trade deal.

'First of all, as you'd expect, I'm making the case that if the EU had followed through on its commitments we'd have a free trade deal. It ought to be doable,' he said.

Taoiseach: No Brexit deal would be a 'an appalling failure of statecraft'

Irish leader Micheal Martin warned that it would be 'an appalling failure of statecraft' if the UK and EU could not agree a Brexit deal.

Dialogue should continue as long as there is the possibility of a post-Brexit trade deal, Ireland's Taoiseach said.

Creating a level playing field for commerce and access to fishing waters are the key outstanding matters.

Micheal Martin said 97 per cent of issues had already been agreed between Britain and the EU.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'I think it would be an appalling failure of statecraft if we were not in a position to get a deal over the line.'

He added: 'It is vital that we do not have an acrimonious break-up because that would be very damaging.'

Mr Martin said he hoped talks on a post-transition accord would continue beyond Sunday if no breakthrough was achieved.

'Where the dialogue continues, that gives me hope,' he said.

Ireland has argued that in reality Britain is unlikely to significantly diverge from EU standards in many areas and Mr Martin again noted that the UK was a 'first-world country'.

He said access to the European market was important to Britain.

'A resolution mechanism to resolve any future disputes is one that both sides, with a bit of creativity, can sign up to,' he said.

'Ninety-seven percent of this deal has been negotiated.

'The remaining 3 per cent should not be beyond the capacity of both sides to bridge.

'That is why it is so important that dialogue continues.'

Mr Raab added that the Government 'do want to get a deal if it's at all possible'.

Asked if talks could continue into the new year if no agreement is found, the Foreign Secretary said he would not 'speculate on hypotheticals', adding: 'But the reality is for the EU, their point of pressure is now. After January 1, the idea that they are somehow going to win concessions later that they can't win now I think is for the birds.'

Later he claimed the EU has 'shifted the goalposts'.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'We've just talked about this at the outset - the EU has shifted the goalposts.

'We were told a Canada-style agreement was available, you've just said it in your own terms, you've put it to me that the EU is not being now willing to offer us that.

'So let us be very clear, if we are forced into this position it is because the EU wasn't willing to treat us like any other independent third country would expect to be treated and, indeed, how the EU would expect to be treated.'

Mr Raab continued: 'Well I do think it is absurd that the EU has taken the approach that it has which means that German car manufacturers, French fishermen and women, the French farmers would suffer.

'And the common sense win-win in the free trade deal Canada-style is still there to be done. And it is not the UK that hasn't shown the flexibility, the pragmatism - in the context of Northern Ireland, the Joint Committee, we've resolved all those issues.'

Talks could theoretically continue up until Christmas Day, with the Commons even sitting on Boxing Day to put any deal on to the statute book.

Mr Johnson is, however, adamant that the UK will not go back to the negotiating table after December 31, when the Brexit transition period expires.

Mr Johnson faced fury from Leave-backing Tory grandees last night. Former minister Lord Heseltine, writing in the Observer, said: 'This government will be – and should be – held responsible for quite simply the worst peacetime decision of modern times. I know personally of members of the cabinet who believe this as firmly as I do. I cannot understand their silence.'

'Christmas is upon us and before the country goes back to work we are on our own. Sovereign, in charge, control regained. None of that creates a single job, one pound's worth of investment or any rise in living standards. We will have risked our trading relationship with the world's largest market which accounts for nearly half our imports and exports.'

Spain's foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez said a no-deal outcome to the post-Brexit trade talks should be avoided 'at all costs'.

She told Sky News' Sophy Ridge On Sunday: 'No-deal in the current circumstances would be extremely negative for our economies.

'And if you go by what economists are saying, and there is plenty of literature on that, the UK would suffer even more than the European Union.

'We both will suffer, more on the UK side, which I think is something we should try to avoid at all costs.'

Talks were continuing into this morning, but one Government source said: 'As things stand, the offer on the table from the EU remains unacceptable. The Prime Minister will leave no stone unturned in this process, but he is absolutely clear: any agreement must be fair and respect the fundamental position that the UK will be a sovereign nation in three weeks' time. If they want a deal, it has to be now.'

The talks have been paralysed by rows over fishing rights and the so-called level playing field 'ratchet' that would tie the UK to future EU standards.

It is understood that remaining hopes of a last-minute breakthrough hinge on discussions about a new body that could settle future disputes between London and Brussels about trade laws and tariffs.

British negotiators believe a personality clash has compounded the problem because the 'Lutheran' Mrs Merkel does not trust the 'libertine' Mr Johnson.

One Minister involved in the negotiations said that Mr Johnson was being 'strong and resolute', but claimed that Chancellor Rishi Sunak was 'wobbling' over the economic cost of No Deal and was in the 'sell-out camp'.

Under the No Deal contingency plans released last night: