T he headlines suggest the talks between the UK and EU on a trade deal will be a bloodbath. “We are going to rip each other apart,” said Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister.

David Frost, Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator, will probably return the French fire in a speech in Brussels on Monday night. He will likely say the UK is demanding only the same EU trade terms as Canada, Japan and South Korea, and call for a relationship “based on friendly cooperation between sovereign equals”.