WHEN HE became prime minister, Boris Johnson insisted that he would not be a supplicant visiting continental capitals to plead over the terms of Brexit. Unless the European Union agreed in advance to ditch the Irish backstop from the current Brexit withdrawal agreement, he would not talk to his fellow leaders at all. Instead, Britain was ready to leave the EU on October 31st, with or without a deal. Yet this week he flew to Berlin and Paris to see Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron before going on to the G7 summit in Biarritz.

Beforehand, Mr Johnson wrote to fellow European leaders to repeat that the backstop, intended to avert a hard border in Ireland in all circumstances by keeping the United Kingdom in a customs union with the EU, must go. He also insisted that, contrary to promises to adhere to many Brussels rules so as to preserve a level playing-field, Britain must have freedom to diverge from EU regulations. Despite this uncompromisingly hard line, he was politely received by the German chancellor and the French president. Mr Johnson’s supporters promptly talked up the results, claiming that Mrs Merkel had given him 30 days to produce an alternative to the backstop, while Mr Macron had conceded that the withdrawal agreement could be amended.

Both suggestions are wide of the mark. In reality, Mrs Merkel was just musing that, since no realistic alternative to the backstop had been found in three years, it would be testing to find one in the next 30 days, implying that any idea that was found would go into the non-binding political declaration about the future. As for Mr Macron, who earlier called the current backstop “indispensable”, he was merely pointing out that the shortage of time before October 31st meant that any Brexit deal would have to be fundamentally the same as the current withdrawal agreement.

The truth is that European leaders have every incentive to listen to and engage with Mr Johnson. They wish to avoid the no-deal Brexit that he is threatening on October 31st, as it would damage the EU, albeit less than Britain. But their bigger concern is to stand solidly behind the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, who has staked his position on keeping the backstop as the only guarantee against any risk of a return to a hard border in Ireland.

When Mr Johnson duly fails in late September to produce a credible alternative, EU leaders will insist that it is up to the British government whether to accept the backstop in some form or to leave with no deal. Although many European leaders would like Brexit to be over, they will also make clear that they are willing to extend the deadline beyond October 31st if needs be. They will certainly want to emphasise that, if Britain falls off a cliff, it will be by choice, not because the EU pushed it.

They also have half an eye on the Westminster Parliament, which returns to work on September 3rd. They are keenly following discussions by MPs from all parties on how to thwart a no-deal Brexit, either by legislative means or by the nuclear option of a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s government. The talk of giving him 30 days to come up with a solution may yet delay a vote of confidence. But the EU still believes that, if MPs really want to stop Britain leaving with no-deal, they have the numbers to do it.