Boris has finally had his much-anticipated first phone call with Leo Varadkar, it wasn’t just for a catch-up about the cricket. Boris repeated his core position that the UK will be leaving on October 31 “no matter what”, and the UK will be quite happy to negotiate a deal with the EU but the backstop must be abolished. Boris also reiterated that the UK will never put physical checks or infrastructure on the border. The two leaders “agreed to stay in contact”, Boris even got an invitation to Dublin…

Irish public opinion is already beginning to turn against Varadkar’s aggressive approach, the Irish Government has repeatedly clarified that it won’t be putting up border checks either even in the event of no deal. Varadkar increasingly needs a way down off the ledge constructed by Robbins, Barnier and Coveney…