What the commentators said

Britain’s relationship with France has always been “tortuously complex”, said William Hague in The Daily Telegraph, so Macron’s hard-line stance should come as no surprise. He fears the UK will become the “sweatshop of Europe”, undermining EU standards with cheap goods and lax regulations. But is that likely? We’ve cut carbon emissions at a far faster rate than the EU average; we have a higher minimum wage than most EU states; we spend less than half what the French do on subsidising industries. Even so, Brussels has reason to fear a bad deal, said Gideon Rachman in the FT. If it gives the UK unfettered market access, there is nothing to stop a future UK government relaxing regulations to enable British firms to undercut EU competitors. But one thing is clear, said Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail: it would be madness to sacrifice a deal over fishing, which accounts for only 0.1% of the UK economy and employs just 24,000 people.

If the PM does strike a deal, he’ll still face the difficult challenge of selling it to his party, said James Forsyth in The Times. He doesn’t have to worry about his Cabinet – among whom “he is consistently the most hard-line figure in the room on Brexit”; but Brexiteer Tory MPs are far less predictable. If they decide the agreement isn’t a clean enough break, they’ll be quick to tour the studios to denounce it. But whether we end up with a skinny deal or no deal at all, we’re heading for significant disruption from 1 January, said Robert Colvile in The Sunday Times. For at least the first few months of next year, we’re likely to see delays at Britain’s borders, “lorry parks in Kent turning into muddy fields”, and major upheavals to companies’ distribution networks. As it becomes “more of a chore to get health insurance or to retire to the Costa del Sol”, we’ll all feel the hard reality of Brexit. But in time, benefits will surely emerge. And while it’s conceivable that the post-Brexit fallout will dominate next year’s news cycle, it’s equally possible that the pandemic and other issues mean Brexit will finally “fade into the background”.