Principled? He secretly believed in Brexit . . . but ‘campaigned’ for Remain

his own campaign went on. On Milne’s advice, Corbyn chose to star at the British Kebab Awards rather than attend a major Remain rally. Johnson was even more indignant about his leader’s appearance in a white fur coat and black tie on The Last Leg, a Channel 4 comedy show.

Not only did Corbyn deliberately look unserious, but, to harm the campaign still further, he told the audience that he was only ‘7 or 7.5 out of 10’ in favour of Europe.

‘I’m not a huge fan of the EU,’ he said, smiling.

The result of the Referendum on June 23 shocked everyone. The puzzle on that momentous night was to locate Corbyn. He had disappeared – his staff assumed he had gone home to sleep, and had turned his telephone off. After getting up late the following day, Corbyn was seen laughing over breakfast with his team. Although Milne and McDonnell admitted to voting Leave, Corbyn would deny that he had done so.

After a telephone conversation, his old friend Keith Veness believes that he did vote Leave, not least because he sounded so delighted.

Before Corbyn arrived at his office that morning, he publicly demanded that the Government should i mmediately apply for Article 50, the process to terminate Britain’s membership of the EU. Back then he saw no reason to prepare for negotiations or for a transition period.

He simply wanted Britain out of the European Union without establishing any relationship with the customs union or the single market, and emphatically ruled out a second referendum.