On Tuesday, Boris Johnson’s office gave a gloomy assessment after a call between the Prime Minister and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In a statement to the media, Downing Street said Mrs Merkel had told Mr Johnson that a deal was “overwhelmingly unlikely” unless the UK agreed to allow Northern Ireland to continue to follow EU customs rules. The anonymous Number 10 source said: “If this represents a new established position, then it means a deal is essentially impossible not just now but ever.”

The German government confirmed Mrs Merkel and Mr Johnson had spoken but declined to comment on the substance of “confidential conversations”.

The EU, however, responded with fury to Mr Johnson’s stance.

The statement prompted President of the European Council Donald Tusk to warn against a “stupid blame game” and chide Mr Johnson in Latin.

The EU chief wrote on Twitter: “Boris Johnson, what’s at stake is not winning some stupid blame game.

“At stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people.

“You don’t want a deal, you don’t want an extension, you don’t want to revoke, quo vadis?”

Political analysts suggested that such abrupt remarks indicate that now both London and EU capitals are preparing for a no deal Brexit, for which neither side wants to be held responsible.

However, in a 2016 speech, the President of the European Council had already warned Mr Johnson that he would not allowed Britain to leave with a good deal and that the only alternative would have been a hard Brexit.

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Just hours after Mr Johnson had told a committee of MPs he was confident Britain could strike a better trade deal with the EU after Brexit, Mr Tusk used a speech in Brussels to scotch the idea that Britain could “have its cake and eat it”.

Speaking to an audience of policymakers in Brussels in October 2016, Mr Tusk brutally claimed that Britain had to choose between either a hard Brexit or no Brexit at all.

He said: “In my opinion the only real alternative to a hard Brexit is no Brexit, even if today hardly anyone believes in such a possibility.”

Paraphrasing Mr Johnson’s campaign trail claim that a post-Brexit Britain would “have the EU cake and eat it too”, Mr Tusk said: “The brutal truth is that Brexit will be a loss for all of us.

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“There will be no cakes on the table for anyone.

“There will only be salt and vinegar.

“The words uttered by one of the leading campaigners for Brexit . . .[were] pure illusion.”

Mr Tusk added that the Leave campaign’s mantra of “take back control” had “definitive consequences” for the Government and the negotiation process.

He concluded: “This means a de facto will to radically loosen relations with the EU, something that goes by the name of hard Brexit.”

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