Boris Johnson news live: No-deal Brexit looms as Gove claims EU is ‘refusing to negotiate’ with UK and Brussels rejects No 10’s tactics

Boris Johnson’s big official business for the day is hosting Estonian prime minister Juri Ratas at No 10, making an exception to his self-imposed rule not to sit down for talks with fellow EU leaders unless they agree to give up the Brexit backstop.

It’s understood their discussions will focus on shared defence and security concerns in the Baltic state, where UK troops are currently based as part of a Nato operation to deter Russian aggression.

Ratas tweeted this at the end of July after Johnson won the leadership contest.

Boris Johnson has hired Lynton Crosby’s “right-hand man” Isaac Levido as his director of politics and campaigning at Tory HQ, Politico reports.

Levido is expected to take charge of general election campaign plans and report director to Johnson’s own right-hand man Dominic Cummings.

The polling guru worked with Crosby at the Australian strategist’s firm CFT Partners and on the Tories’ successful 2015 election campaign.

Is it too late for MPs to force a general election before 31 October? Reuters has taken a look…

“In 2011, Britain introduced new laws setting out a fixed schedule for an election every five years, with provisions for holding an early election.

“Under these laws, after losing a no-confidence vote the prime minister or his political rivals have 14 days to prove they can govern by winning a vote in parliament. If no government has proven itself during that period, the prime minister moves to dissolve parliament and sets an election date no sooner than 25 working days after parliament is dissolved.

“Dissolution does not have to happen immediately and the date for an election can be more than 25 days from dissolution.”

Under this interpretation, 25 October is the earliest possible polling day, if – and it’s a big if – Labour proposes a no-confidence motion on 3 September.

And if – and it’s another big if – Johnson ignores the convention that elections take place on a Thursday (25 October is a Friday).

Nicola Sturgeon has been sharing the gossip about Theresa May. Scotland’s first minister said her conversations with the former PM were “soul-destroying and torturous” during a speaking event at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She also said the current PM is “one of these guys that talks utter nonsense with complete conviction and confidence”.

Here’s our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan with more.

Dominic Cummings and his boss may be keen to sow doubt about the power of parliament, but Lib Dems’ business spokesperson Chuka Umunna insists MPs can still stop a no deal-exit.

Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator David Frost reportedly suggested to EU officials the backstop – and any commitments about the Irish border – are null and void because the British government is no longer bound by pledges made by Theresa May’s team, according to the BBC’s Adam Fleming.

It’s why Brussels officials have complained that “we’ve gone back three years”.

Should the views of the former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, an official in the Obama administration, bear any significance today?

Summers had plenty to say earlier about how Washington negotiators would be approaching any trade talks with the UK in a post-Brexit world. Our political editor Andrew Woodcock takes a closer look.

Boris Johnson has welcomed his first world leader to Downing Street since becoming PM. He shook hands with Estonian counterpart Juri Ratas in the street before heading in to Number 10.

Larry the cat was said to be asleep on a nearby windowsill, unmoved by the historic occasion.

The two men waited for reporters and photographers to leave the room before starting their meeting on shared defence and security concerns.

Boris Johnson welcomes Juri Ratas to No 10 (Reuters) 

Spare a thought for the civil servants of Whitehall, who face a frantic couple of days. They have been given 48 hours to report on no-deal Brexit preparations by Boris Johnson’s consigliere Dominic Cummings, according to The Telegraph.

“He said he wanted a note from all government departments … detailing what they had done to prepare for no deal and what more needed to be done,” one insider told the newspaper.

Incidentally, Dominic Cummings recently told all government special advisers – better known as spads – that their loyalty is to Downing Street rather than the minister for whom they work. The former Vote Leave campaign director has also them anyone caught leaking will be fired under his “one strike and you’re out” policy.

The gossip coming out of the most recent No 10 meetings suggests the policy isn’t quite working. According to BuzzFeed’s Alex Wickham, Cummings has warned the spads against acting like “mr/mrs big time with a bunch of hacks”.