Don’t let politicking scupper an EU deal

After months of sacrifice and misery, this week has brought a glimmer of hope when the UK became the first nation to greenlight a Covid-19 vaccine.

Now we face another waiting game. Will No 10 pull off a Brexit trade deal or go down the path of No deal?

a reasonable pact had been arrived at and was ready to sign, we are told, until french President Emmanuel Macron threw a spanner in the works.

He said the UK would have to remain in lockstep with the EU on future regulations – a demand seemingly calculated to infuriate Boris Johnson.

But there is more than a little theatre being played out here. Johnson and Macron have bought themselves some leverage with their rank-and-file and can turn to their respective hardliners and say that the other side of the negotiation table is outrageously stubborn – but one last red pen run over the draft and it will be done.

No deal is a dangerous trap. for one, it would i nvolve tearing up framework agreements that are ready and waiting to go. after a year like this, both the UK and the EU dearly need to get their economies back online. at home, Johnson must also avoid handing the SNP fresh artillery for its war on the Union.

The Prime Minister has difficult choices before him but none of them is about whether or not to honour the vote to leave the EU. Brexit is no longer an aspiration but a fact, whether we are glad or glum about it. What he was trying – and must continue – to do is strike a deal that maximises the UK’s freedom to trade and control our borders, while recognising that our partners have their own economic and political interests.

a f ree trade deal between f riendly neighbours isn’t rocket science – and would be a fine end to an horrendous year.