Boris’s Brexit-Ukraine comparison was a mistake

After years of post-Brexit rancour, the last few weeks have been a striking display of European (not just EU) unity. Britain was the first to send arms to Ukraine, now the EU is (for the first time) buying weapons so it can follow suit. No one forced Norway’s strategic wealth fund to disinvest all Russian assets, but it chose to. Even Switzerland is marching in lockstep with the sanctions. Putin had counted on European divisions, which had certainly been on display when Germany was still going ahead with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, in defiance of protests and pleas from Eastern Europe and the European parliament. The invasion turned this squabbling into unity: Britain may have left the European Union but when a European city is being shelled by the Kremlin what we see is a united Europe and a united West.

This is why it was not just misjudged but damaging for Boris Johnson to use his conference speech to compare the Ukrainian fight for national survival to those who voted for Brexit.