Geert Bourgeois, prime minister of Flanders, Belgium on the emerging Brexit consensus…

“More and more people now agree that there has to be a ‘soft Brexit’, I can’t imagine a situation where we have more barriers on trade in both directions. You are our fourth biggest export market. It is in our mutual interest to find a solution, and the majority of the EU now agrees that anything other than a soft Brexit would have a huge cost… We will be able to negotiate a trade agreement. It may be sui generis but it can be done…”