A third of our panel of Conservative Party members want to take their time before forming a view. But even if one adds to them the paltry six per cent who think early signs are that the agreement is a win for the EU, they are outnumbered by 60 per cent of respondents, three in five, who believe that the early signs are that it is a win for UK.
Which is all of a piece with the provisional thumbs-up that the agreement has had from Brexiteering Tory MPs, from a substantial slice of the Eurosceptic commentariat, and indeed from Nigel Farage (up to a point).
It is possible that there will be a movement of opinion against the deal during the next few days, especially if the ERG’s Star Chamber finds problems with the agreement buried away in the small print. But it has to be said that there are no signs of such a development so far.
So as we write, Boris Johnson looks once, twice and now three times a winner – over the Withdrawal Agreement, last year’s election and now this trade deal. Furthermore, he may well have succeeded where Theresa May, David Cameron, John Major and, yes, even Margaret Thatcher failed – by both uniting his party over Europe and then getting a result.