The course of Brexit was set in the hours and days after the 2016 referendum. / It was at 6:22 a.m. on June 24, 2016 — 59 minutes before the official tally was unveiled — that the European Council sent its first “lines to take” to the national governments that make up the EU.

This evening, Michel Barnier said the EU was ready to offer Britain a unilateral exit from the customs union while maintaining the other elements of the backstop.