Macron tells Johnson Brexit backstop is indispensable

French president tells Boris Johnson he must present concrete proposals for UK exit. Emmanuel Macron has described the Irish backstop as “indispensable” to a Brexit deal and urged Boris Johnson to set out his proposed alternatives as soon as possible, as he met the British prime minister in Paris on Thursday. The French president told Johnson that the EU would like “visibility” on London’s concrete proposals for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU within a month,