The EU have been doing their bit to try to influence the Tory leadership race, insisting that they will not be changing any of the terms of the Brexit deal for any new Prime Minister who comes in. It doesn’t take a genius to work out why the EU would rather have a new Prime Minister who comes in and accepts everything they say rather than demanding changes…

Behind closed doors it’s a different story, The Sun revealed this morning that the EU is fact working on no deal contingency plans to use IT solutions to help goods cross the Irish border after Brexit. That wasn’t so hard after all, was it?

EU officials are still insisting that IT solutions won’t be enough to manage all the border issues. This is missing the point, of course no deal is not the optimum scenario if the EU won’t compromise on a deal then they will be the ones facing the choice of whether to respond to no deal in a pragmatic way, or a disruptive way. Taking no deal off the table is ultimately what destroyed Theresa May’s negotiation attempts and killed her premiership, if her successor does the same they will suffer the same fate…

UPDATE: It’s also good news for Sajid Javid who pledged to pay the EU “hundreds of millions” to help them develop tech solutions. He won’t need to bill the British taxpayer now the ever-generous EU are doing it for him…