Johnson’s Halloween nightmare: how PM’s Brexit tactics fell apart

The prime minister and the Labour leader faced huge problems as their strategies collapsed and they were forced to backtrack. It was supposed to be a Halloween Brexit, when the lights would finally go out on the UK’s 46-year membership of the European project, at 11pm on Thursday, 31 October. Ten million celebratory 50p coins bearing the words “friendship with all nations” were being prepared as mementoes. Brexiters had planned big parties to toast the moment with champagne and