‘Our man in Brussels, Sir Tim Barrow, was previously UK ambassador in Moscow and he is unlikely to take kindly to having his own status downgraded, which is the obvious reciprocal action the EU can take.’ Photograph: Yves Herman/AP Of all people in government Boris Johnson should be first to recognise the status of European Union representatives. His father, Stanley, was a European commission official for many years and the European taxpayer paid the prime minister’s school fees at the expensive European School, Brussels I and then Eton. However, in a row that has been rumbling for a year alongside Brexit trade talks, the government is refusing to give full diplomatic status to the EU’s ambassador to the UK, João Vale de Almeida and his 25-strong mission. The Foreign Office claims it does not want to set a precedent by treating an international body in the same way it treats a nation state, with diplomats afforded the privileges and immunities under the Vienna Convention.