A trade deal with Germany can only mean one thing

Britain will not be rejoining the EU, the single market nor the customs union – that ship has sailed, and all we seek now is a closer relationship with the EU. So Keir Starmer assures those who feel a little suspicious about his multiple meetings with Olaf Scholz in the weeks since becoming Prime Minister, the latest of which took place this morning. All he seeks, he says, is a better trade deal which would allow better access to EU markets for UK firms.

Maybe Starmer dreams at night of being paraded through the streets of Brussels as the man who engineered Britain’s return to the EU. He did, after all, continue to press for a second referendum right up until the point at which it became too late.