Press

Mr Johnson clearly does want to try and implement a deal this autumn if possible. He made that clear on Thursday in his maiden address to the House of Commons as prime minister. The focus of his effort right now is on forcing the EU to think again. But the UK and EU are so far apart, that some (such as John Springford) see a different chain of events unfolding.

Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform says EU capitals think a no-deal outcome is now more likely than not. “They don’t trust Parliament to stop it,” he said. The Grieve manoeuvers are increasingly dismissed as noise. This is significant. It does not mean that the EU will drop the Withdrawal Agreement. “They think they are well-prepared and can take a no-deal on the chin, and they think we are less prepared,” said Mr Grant.

 Men samtidig var det blandt andre de nationalkonservative polske medlemmer af Parlamentet, der sikrede hende pladsen for bordenden i EU-Kommissionen. Og de østeuropæiske regeringer tager fejl, hvis de regner med at få medvind fra Ursula von der Leyen, mener Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska, seniorforsker ved tænketanken Centre for European Reform i Bruxelles.

To get a sense of how grim things appear, it’s worth looking at this Twitter thread by Charles Grant, head of the Centre for European Reform. He has been holding talks with EU officials and yesterday spelled out what the four routes to a revised Brexit deal could be.

“European elections delivered a much more fragmented Parliament,” said Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska, an expert on European politics at the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank. “What is going to be pretty prominent is that the euroskeptics who failed to obtain a blocking minority in the European Parliament will try to expose the vulnerabilities of this pro-European coalition.”