Threat of no-deal Brexit has been banished

Threat of no-deal Brexit has been banished

Threat of no-deal Brexit has been banished

John Rentoul

Chief Political Commentator, The Independent; visiting professor, King's College, London.

Chief Political Commentator, The Independent; visiting professor, King's College, London.

26 minutes ago

Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, talks to the media in Brussels, Belgium. Reuters

We have achieved "something that the people of this country instinctively knew was doable but which they were told was impossible“, claimed Boris Johnson when the EU trade deal was finally announced. He was entitled to claim credit for delivering what the narrow majority of the British electorate voted for four and a half years ago. He has seen off the worst Brexit scenario and confounded the pessimists.

The spectre of "no deal“ no longer haunts British politics. It was one of the realities of Brexit that the country leaving the EU was in a weak bargaining position, and that one of the few credible threats it could use “” to walk away without agreeing terms “” would be more damaging to it than to the union it was leaving.

Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission president, set out bluntly the reasons for the EU's "strong negotiating position“ at her news conference this afternoon: "A hard Brexit would not have