Laboured silence

Meanwhile, what of Labour? The main opposition party is revelling in the Government’s travails and wishes to supplant it. But to what end? The confusion and the contradictions in Labour’s Brexit policy are bewildering. Many of the conditions the party has set out for supporting Theresa May’s deal are actually met in the agreement, including the protection of employee rights and the retention of environmental standards.

Perversely, Labour’s objection is that this means the UK is committed only to a level playing field and is not linked to future changes in EU regulations. But since we will have left the EU – and it is Labour’s official policy to do just that – is it seriously being suggested that an outside body should continue to make laws for the UK to follow? If Labour wants different regulations after Brexit, it can win an election and introduce them.

Labour also wants to be in a customs union, but not the customs union, and to remain in a single market, though on its own cake-and-eat-it terms. The reality is that many MPS would prefer to stay in the EU and hope that a second referendum will allow Brexit to be reversed. But Jeremy Corbyn and John Mcdonnell, both long-standing Eurosceptics, want out. Labour is just as conflicted on this matter as the Tories, only it tries to pretend otherwise.

Mr Corbyn admitted yesterday that he had not actually read the Withdrawal Agreement, thereby showing he intended to denounce it whatever it contained. He also said a second referendum was “an option for the future but not for now”. But with Brexit due to happen next March, how long does Mr Corbyn think he has to develop a coherent alternative policy that the country can understand?