Press

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, described the no-deal tariff plans as a “quite an extensive unilateral liberalisation” in order to keep prices low. It would make post-Brexit Britain one of the most open countries in the world.

To Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, a research institute, it is all about constructing a narrative of “the people versus the elite.”“They understand theater in Downing Street,” Mr Grant said, “and the theater of ‘the people’s Boris’ being pushed around by out-of-touch judges and other European Council leaders, suits his narrative.”

“Sometimes it is a way to reward an ally,” said Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska, a senior researcher with the London-based organization Centre for European Reform. “Or it might be a way to send a competitor away for at least five years. Smaller states increasingly send real heavyweights, like former prime ministers.”

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said: "The French think that they can act unilaterally without talking to everyone and get away with it, because they have a dynamic young leader with power and no one else does."

The government's ideas for avoiding infrastructure by relying on yet-to-exist technology are still met with huge scepticism (Sam Lowe has done a brilliant mock-up of what it looks like, below). EU diplomats are quick to point out dangers of a porous border that will become a smuggler's paradise. Making it work means Brussels will have to effectively suspend its customs code. EU27 diplomats were told last night that the blueprint doesn't meet the three criteria needed to replace the backstop.