Will Farage change his mind about Boris’s Brexit deal?

It will be some days before the full character of the Brexit trade deal and other future partnership arrangements with the EU become clear.

The smoke and mirrors that often accompany budget statements surround this deal as well, and we must wait for expert analytical eyes to go through the body of the 500-page text and tell us what troubling details lurk inside it.

But nonetheless, the very striking of a deal which can be argued to observe Boris Johnson’s basic red lines and bring an orderly switchover of trading arrangement stymies those who were seeking to catastrophise the final phase of Brexit.

It also shows that the continuity Remainers who insisted Johnson was never serious about ending the transition period with a deal were talking nonsense. No wonder they were the ones sporting the longest faces and making the most sour statements on social media today.

With Nigel Farage having already taken the strategic decision to admit that Johnson has delivered on the big picture of Brexit – albeit with many imperfections – the early atmospherics surrounding the deal are all running in the Government’s favour.