The Suez crisis in 1956 was a humiliating moment of truth for the UK. Faced with implacable opposition from the US, Anthony Eden’s government was forced to abandon military action in Egypt. Capitulation to American pressure was a recognition of Britain’s diminished status on the world stage.

The trade deal agreed between Washington and Brussels this week lacks the drama of troops being sent in to recapture one of the world’s key waterways, but it is the EU’s Suez moment all the same. What’s more, European politicians know as much.

Donald Trump said the outcome was “great”, and for the US that was certainly the case, since the EU made all