Charles Day

Boris Johnson’s biggest Brexit deal victory

In order to get anywhere in life, you have to compromise. Redrafting a deal foisted on you with no time and no majority has been Herculean. In doing so, the UK have made serious concessions so we can maintain good relationships with the EU. That must not get forgotten in the understandable (and shared) joy in getting a deal agreed in Brussels. Those who weakened our negotiating hand have a lot to answer for.

What remains fundamental now is that all of us, whichever side we were once on, realise two things. That this dance has two stages and that the UK has made all its concessions in the first half.

If we had our time again, perhaps those concessions may not have been necessary. Or perhaps instead, they should never have been even asked of us.

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