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Express.co.uk readers can vote in our poll on whether they want a trade agreement, no deal or Remain. The Prime Minister said there is a “very good” chance of striking an agreement with Brussels following a video conference on Monday with European Council chief Charles Michel, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Parliament president David Sassoli.
Speaking in Downing Street, Mr Johnson insisted a deal could be concluded “provided we really focus now and get on and do it”.
He said it was “very clear what the UK needs” from the agreement.
He added: “We can’t have the involvement of the European Court of Justice in this country, we can’t have a system whereby we continue to have to obey EU law even when we’re out of the EU and we’ve got to get a great deal for our fish.”
The two sides have agreed to an “intensified” negotiating timetable after little progress was made in the last four rounds of talks.
And the EU has finally accepted the UK will not extend the December 31 transition period deadline.
Mr Johnson said: “I don’t think we’re actually that far apart, but what we need now is to see a bit of oomph in the negotiations.”
In a joint statement, the two sides said the earlier rounds of talks led by the Prime Minister’s Europe adviser David Frost and EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier had been “constructive” but “new momentum was required”.
In their video conference the leaders agreed plans to “intensify the talks in July and to create the most conducive conditions for concluding and ratifying a deal before the end of 2020”.
But Mr Michel insisted the EU would stand by its call for a “level playing field” to ensure fair competition by forcing the UK to stick to Brussels’ rules on workers’ rights, environmental protections and state subsidies.
The UK has so far refused the demand arguing that it limits Britain’s sovereignty and goes further than conditions on other countries the EU has trade deals with.
Mr Michel said a “broad and ambitious” agreement was in both sides’ interests but the level playing field was “essential”.
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He added that the EU was “ready to put a tiger in the tank but not to buy a pig in a poke”.
The Prime Minister said a deal could be done but “the faster we can do this the better”.
On the possibility of a “cut-off date” on the talks to give businesses certainty, Mr Johnson said: “What we already said today is the faster we can do this the better, we see no reason why you shouldn’t get that done in July.
“The issue is very clear, we fought an election based on these ideas, the manifesto was very clear.
“I certainly don’t want to see it going on to the autumn/winter as I think perhaps in Brussels they would like.”
Mr Johnson was joined at the virtual summit by Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, Mr Frost and the UK’s ambassador to the EU Sir Tim Barrow.
Weekly talks with the EU will now take place for five weeks from June 29 looking at detailed technical issues.
The UK officially left the EU on January 31 and is in a transition period with Brussels until the end of the year.
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