Brexit talks resume: who is involved and what is being covered?

Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform thinktank, believes an extension is inevitable but Johnson has “no incentive” to seek one until June, the deadline for a one-off UK request.

“A free-trade agreement could still be agreed but it would be hard to implement. Even if we were coming to the end of this pandemic by then, businesses will be not be prepared,” said Lowe, who described himself as optimistic that a free-trade deal could be done by the end of the year, albeit a poor one.