Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics podcast.

I'm Cindy Yu and I'm joined by Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.

So over the weekend, Chancellor Philip Hammond warned that a no-deal Brexit would leave the UK at the mercy of the French.

So how much credence should we give this claim?

And when did Philip Hammond

become the latest anti-no-deal Brexit freedom fighter? Fraser, what do you think? Well, we've always

known that Philip Hammond is one of the most active opponents of Brexit. As Chancellor, he was perhaps

chief saboteur in refusing to come up with plans for a no-deal Brexit. That was his job. He refused to do it,

knowing that that would leave the Prime Minister with no options. And so this impasse we're in,

it has probably more to do with his acts of subterfuge than anybody else's. He is being as good

as a word outside government. Well, he's not

quite outside government now, but he will be as soon as there's a new prime minister. So he wants to

try to make out that no deal would be a disaster and illustrate them any ways in which he thinks

it would be a disaster.

Now, I'm not quite persuaded by what he says.

Technically, he's correct to say that Emmanuel Macron, if he wants to,

could make it quite difficult for Britain by, using Hammond's words,

dial up or dial down the queues at Calais.

In other words, decide to have one than a hundred vehicles checked or every second vehicle checked.

Now, the WTO rules allow both of them.

So yes, he could be vexatious.

But would he really want to put Northern France through their economic misery just to be vindictive,

...