The Atlantic

A New British Prime Minister Faces the Same Old Brexit Problem

Boris Johnson is convinced he can compel the EU to change its Brexit position. The bloc says it won’t budge.
Source: Toby Melville / Reuters

Insanity, the saying goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It’s a tactic Theresa May demonstrated brilliantly during her three-year tenure as Britain’s prime minister, in which she attempted to push her negotiated Brexit deal setting out the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union three times—only to have it rejected by whopping majorities on each try.

Boris Johnson, who replaced May this week, has pledged to take a different path. Speaking on the steps of Downing Street on Wednesday, he”—by striking a new and better deal with the EU by the October 31 deadline. Barring that, Johnson said he would take Britain out of the bloc without a deal.

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