With Brexit clock ticking, Boris Johnson vows, again, to walk away

Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, a research institute, described the prime minister’s statement as “high-stakes theatrics” and said he still believed that a deal was more likely than not because both sides had recently shifted on some of their red lines.

“These sorts of performances are part and parcel of the negotiations,” he said. “We are at a crunch point where the difficult political compromises need to be made, but where there is also a need to appear tough for domestic audiences.”