But the end point of the journey would be reached in September 2018, when foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt warned the Europeans that they would be very sorry indeed if they continued to insult Britain by not giving it the Brexit it was demanding: ‘The way Britain reacts is not that we crumble or fold but actually you end up invoking the Dunkirk spirit and we fight back… We are one of the great countries of Europe and there comes a point where we say “we’re not prepared to be pushed around, if you’re not serious about a deal then we won’t be either”.’
