Boris Johnson has negotiated his way into a corner. With the naïve view that the EU would eventually buckle and accede to the UK’s desires, we are now just over five weeks away from the end of the transition period. The choices in front of Boris are to either cave in to the EU’s demands in order to sign a weak, thin, bad deal – or walk away without a deal. I think he should do the latter.
Of course, there are obvious advantages for the Prime Minister in signing a deal (even a bad one) with the EU at this stage. It would cause slightly less disruption than no deal. And it would leave the two negotiating sides with some goodwill left.
A deal would also put Labour in a tight spot. Any agreement has to be voted on in Parliament, and it isn’t clear if Starmer would support it.
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