The Sun reports, citing sources from the European Commission
The report says that European leaders can see that it is clear Boris Johnson is trying to build pressure by running down the clock and try to use the European Council meeting in October to demand major concessions on Brexit.
Hence, they are instead planning to turn the October meeting into one preparing for a no-deal Brexit by 31 October instead - by discussing contingency measures and communiques bracing businesses and financial markets ahead of deadline day.
Citing a senior EU source, the report adds:
"It'll be about where are we heading with the Brits, where do we stand with the implementation of contingency measures. If we're really in the deal making business this is not a thing you invent on a small piece of paper on the corner of a table at 3am. You don't do a deal by simply arriving on the 17th after having had a kind of general exchange about what they think in Britain now."
The political game of chicken resumes again as Johnson is trying the same old trick that May pulled in March this year, only to have led to an extension of the Brexit deadline.
