The EU's plan to get a Brexit deal: Let Boris Johnson claim he won

With talks between the UK and EU still deadlocked after the British prime minister nearly-but-didn't-quite stage a walkout Friday, that's the only way EU officials say they can secure trade deal

Deep in the European Commission’s Brussels headquarters, officials are plotting how to make it look like Boris Johnson is a brilliant negotiator.

With talks between the UK and European Union still deadlocked after the British prime minister nearly-but-didn’t-quite stage a walkout Friday, that’s the only way EU officials say they can secure the trade deal both sides say they want.

Johnson, who had been unhappy about the pace of negotiations and at the EU’s repeated demands for concessions, said on Friday he would only reopen discussions if the bloc showed “some fundamental change of approach.”

But EU officials, and senior diplomats from Europe’s