Leader: No deal is the worst of all outcomes

The EU flags of anti-Brexit activists fly as pro-Brexit activists stand with their placards and demonstrate near the Houses of Parliament in central London on September 4, 2019. - Prime Minister Boris Johnson raised the prospect of a snap election on Tuesday after he suffered a major parliamentary defeat over his Brexit strategy that could delay Britain's exit from the European Union. Just six weeks after taking office, the Conservative leader was hit by a huge rebellion among his own MPs that leaves him without a working majority in the House of Commons as he looks to take Britain out of the EU on October 31. (Photo by ISABEL INFANTES / AFP) (Photo credit should read ISABEL INFANTES/AFP/Getty Images)

It was once Leavers, not Remainers, who insisted that a no-deal Brexit was unthinkable. David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, declared in February 2016 that German car manufacturers would be “knocking down Chancellor Merkel’s door demanding that there be no barriers to German access to the British market”. Liam Fox, the former international trade secretary, predicted that a new British trade deal with the European Union would be “one of the easiest in human history”. Boris Johnson himself, while foreign secretary, declared in July 2017: “There is no plan for no deal because we are going to get a great deal.”