Why does the EU have to keep saying it won’t renegotiate the Brexit deal?

Politics explained: The message from Brussels hasn’t changed – but Westminster doesn’t seem to be listening

Since last year, the European Union has said it won’t renegotiate Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Yet the message doesn’t seem to be getting through in Westminster. All the Conservative Party leadership contenders to replace the prime minister have suggested some kind of changes.

For Brussels, the matter is closed. It has split up the team that negotiated the deal, and sent Sabine Weyand, Michel Barnier’s deputy, to work for another part of the European Commission.

Jean-Claude Juncker said most recently at the June European Council that EU member states were “unanimous” that there would be no further talks on it, and that there would be nothing new. Before that in March he said he was “crystal clear”. Similar warnings stretch back into antiquity, ad infinitum. The studiousness with which Westminster has ignored the EU’s position is incredible.