EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has confirmed the UK will get a bespoke trade deal with the EU, rather than a carbon copy of another country’s settlement. Another victory for Vote Leave, who always said the UK would secure exactly this…

In a statement to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, von der Leyen said she was willing to negotiate a zero tariff and zero quota relationship for goods – something that no third country currently enjoys with the bloc. However, the Ursula von der Leyen did say the EU is seeking a level playing field…

This is not the sting in the tail many think it is. Brexiteers shouldn’t confuse a level playing field with regulatory alignment, or even ‘dynamic’ alignment with EU rules. Even the EU’s ‘Canada deal’  has some shallow level playing field provisions, and Leavers should keep an open mind to the phrase – as long as it is along the lines of non-regression rather than rule taking. The devil is in the detail, not the soundbites…