Theresa May’s successor, be it frontrunner Boris Johnson or Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, will find an overflowing in tray of items when they start work, and Brexit will be chief amongst them.
Both Conservative leadership candidates have said they will seek to renegotiate a withdrawal agreement from Europe, although currently neither the European Commission or the member states have expressed any interest in reopening discussions.
As well as the practicalities of a probable lack of change in the EU’s approach, either candidate would have to try to repair relations with the EU, considered to have been strained during the run up to – and years subsequent to – the 2016 vote.
During the campaign, Boris Johnson made a comparison between the EU and Nazi Germany.
He said that both Hitler and Napoleon had failed to unify Europe and the EU was attempting to do the same by different methods.