UK seeks to seize back Brexit initiative

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson gave a set-piece Brexit speech on Wednesday in London, the first in a series by Cabinet ministers seeking to seize back the initiative from Brussels in UK exit negotiations. These interventions come at a critical stage with talks on a transition deal having just started.

There had been growing business and political confidence, since December 2017's first phase Brexit deal, that such a transition deal can be secured, potentially quickly by March. Yet, this is becoming tougher, in part because of the significant, ongoing divisions within Prime Minister Theresa May's government.

While Mrs May had been temporarily buoyed in Westminster by December's deal, she remains in a very weak political position overall. And it is this that makes her already poor hand of cards on Brexit even more difficult to deal with, let alone win, against Brussels in coming negotiations not just over the transition, but also any final settlement with the EU-27.