What does Boris Johnson hope to get from his meeting with Angela Merkel today?

Merkel is in Britain today for her final visit as German chancellor. John Rentoul explains what we can expect from her meeting with the prime minister

Merkel to visit PM at Chequers today (AP)

The German chancellor arrives in Britain today for the latest stop on her farewell tour of the world before she steps down in September after 16 years in office. Boris Johnson is putting down the full red carpet – a visit to Chequers, an invitation to cabinet, and a women’s science award in her honour – so what does he hope to gain from her final visit as German leader?

The British government’s news release is gushing, about how Angela Merkel will be the first foreign leader to address cabinet since President Clinton in 1997, and how Anglo-German collaboration has intensified since she took office in Germany in 2005. It doesn’t mention that the cabinet will be meeting on Zoom, and it certainly does not mention Brexit, which has led to reduction in trade between the two countries and will make “youth exchanges” and “bring[ing] together cultural figures” harder.

No doubt Johnson and Merkel will stick to safe subjects such as football rather than discussing Britain’s departure from the EU, although Merkel well knows that there are those around former prime minister David Cameron who feel that Brexit could have been averted if she had shown more flexibility in his renegotiation of the terms of UK membership.

The big picture for the current prime minister is that he wants photo opportunities to show that European cooperation continues after Brexit. Visually, the G7 summit in Cornwall was successful in showing the UK still active and engaged on the world stage; today’s pictures – including of Merkel meeting the Queen – will make a similar point in contradicting the idea that Brexit means Britain being cut off from the rest of Europe.

There are practical matters for the prime minister and chancellor to discuss as well: a new electricity interconnector between the UK and Germany called Neuconnect; and the question of coronavirus restrictions on travel around Europe. Another of Johnson’s predecessors as prime minister, Tony Blair, waded into the debate yesterday, arguing that Merkel’s plan to quarantine arrivals from the UK in the EU “makes no sense”. This gives Johnson the chance to apply gentle pressure to try to kill the idea, which has already been undermined by the decision of the Spanish government to go ahead unilaterally in allowing travellers with negative tests. Portugal and Malta have also said they will not require fully vaccinated travellers to quarantine.

Merkel is a tough negotiator who is unlikely to be moved by Johnson applying the compliments with a trowel, touched as she may be by the idea of the new Caroline Herschel Medal for British and German women in science, in honour of Merkel’s background as a scientist by training. But with the tricky question of the sausage war in Northern Ireland, which cast something of a shadow over the G7 summit, now postponed until such time as Merkel’s successor has to deal with it, the pictures of Anglo-German amity will be worth thousands of dry diplomatic words.

Above all, Johnson might hope that some of the Merkel magic will rub off on him. The idea of being head of government for 16 years might appeal to him rather more than he lets on.