Don’t let posturing scupper a Brexit deal

WHAT does the EU’s chief negotiator think he is playing at? For a few glorious days this summer, it seemed that solid progress was at last being made in the Brexit talks, with both sides making optimistic noises about the chances of an amicable deal.

Yet now Michel Barnier appears to have dashed all hope of a trade agreement, flatly rejecting the Chequers compromise, which he claims would mean ‘the end of the European project’.

Instead, he suggests Britain could adopt the Norway model – which would mean staying in the single market, bound by EU rules (with no say in making them), while remaining committed to free movement and substantial payments to Brussels.

Leave aside that, as Mr Barnier is well aware, Theresa May has unequivocally pledged to leave the single market, while repeatedly ruling out any deal that denies us control of our borders, laws and money.

The fact is that neither Brexiteers nor Remainers want a Norway- style arrangement, which would have no hope of winning Parliament’s approval. Indeed, with Boris Johnson on manoeuvres – and the Opposition anxious to make as much trouble as possible for the Government – it is by no means clear that even the Chequers compromise would win a Commons majority.

If the EU now refuses to endorse it, the likeliest outcome will be a no-deal Brexit – not the end of the world, to be sure, but it’s a result that nobody with Britain’s or Europe’s interests at heart would wish for.

Isn’t the inescapable truth that Mr Barnier appears willing to sacrifice the welfare of 500million Europeans on the altar of the EU’s abstract ideals?

Has he learned nothing from the way Brussels prompted the Brexit vote in the first place, through its obdurate refusal to offer David Cameron any meaningful concessions before the referendum?

True, this paper has made no secret of its belief that the Chequers proposals fall well short of the ideal. But in the real world, they appear to offer the best hope of a smooth path to a prosperous Brexit.

With that in mind, the Mail hopes Europe’s leaders will overrule Mr Barnier. As for those Tories plotting against Mrs May, it is hard to see what they can achieve beyond increasing the chances of a Corbyn-led government.

And as Brexiteers and Remainers must surely agree, no outcome could be worse than that.