Brexit now needs true statesmanship

The great drama of the US elections has proved to be something of a distraction from the more pressing preoccupation of the British Government, namely Brexit. The UK is due to leave the transition phase of the process at the end of the year so it goes without saying that time is running out to strike a trade deal with the EU. Dominic Raab bridled at the questioning of the BBC’S Andrew Marr, who asked whether it could now be assumed that such an outcome was improbable. “I wouldn’t make assumptions. That’s the one thing that we know about the Brexit process,” the Foreign Secretary replied.

He is right. Indeed, it is the one thing we know about all EU negotiations going back for years, that brinkmanship and last-minute deals are par for the course. There is every reason to believe the same will happen this time. The two sides are still talking despite threats to pull the plug, and the issues that separate remain the same, principally sovereignty over UK waters and the level playing field for state intervention and labour laws.

Differences are said to be “fundamental” but they can be resolved with willingness to compromise on both sides. That involves the EU accepting that they are now dealing with an independent nation, not one that can be wedded to supranational rule-making in perpetuity. We have not gone through the past four years to give way on this essential point of the Brexit decision. If Brussels considers this to be a “blockage” to progress then it may prove an insuperable one.

The election of Joe Biden in America may have changed the dynamic, though in ways not yet clear. The president-elect is known to have misgivings about Brexit and will not be as keen on expediting a UK-US trade deal as Donald Trump. The prospect of that receding into the distance makes it even more critical for the Government to secure an agreement with the EU. Mr Biden, who has Irish roots, is particularly concerned about the impact of Brexit on the Good Friday Agreement. Despite ministerial protestations that these concerns are misplaced, the Single Market Bill now before the Lords remains a bone of contention that may yet need to be addressed.

Pulling together these disparate strands will require an act of substantial statesmanship and diplomacy. We are about to discover whether Boris Johnson and his team are up to it.