What the commentators said

It’s possible that this is all “bluster and brinkmanship”, said Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail. “The EU’S plan may be to knock down Chequers before, in a month or two, accepting something quite like it.” But you’d be rash to bet on it. Chequers offends the “rigid theology” of the EU because it envisages Britain staying in the single market for goods (but not services) without signing up to the so-called “four freedoms”, including free movement of people. There’s a “high probability” that Brussels isn’t bluffing when it insists it will never accept this. May needs “a plan B” pronto. The EU certainly won’t accept any deal while its leaders continue to nurture hopes of a British climbdown or even a Brexit reversal, said Wolfgang Münchau in the FT. May’s only option is to push these negotiations “to the very brink. In the meantime, we should all prepare for a no-deal Brexit”.

There’s no call for alarm yet, said the Huffington Post’s Oliver Patel. The reality is that we only need to hammer down a withdrawal deal before Brexit day next March. Tricky questions regarding the UK’S future trading relationship can be sorted out in detail during the post-brexit transition period after that date. Most of the withdrawal deal has already been agreed (80%, according to the EU’S chief negotiator, Michel Barnier). All that is really required now is for the two sides to reach an agreement on the Irish “backstop”, the legal guarantee ensuring there is no hard border in Ireland under any circumstances.

But the two sides are still miles apart on this issue, said Juliet Samuel in The Daily Telegraph. The EU’S backstop plan is to create a customs border in the Irish Sea. May insists she can’t agree to that because even if customs checks were made remotely, it would split Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. She’s right to be outraged by this idea. Brussels is effectively arguing that, if the UK wishes to leave the EU while avoiding the calamitous disruption of a no-deal exit, then it has no choice but to “forego a chunk of its territory”. That’s unacceptable. “It is just possible that the EU has found a real red line in Mrs May’s heart, called unionism.”