Here is what members of the cabinet said to me when I pointed them towards a statement made in the Sunday Telegraph by the Prime Minister that she is ‘determined to deliver Brexit and determined to deliver on time – on March 29 2019’.
‘Farcical’ said one. ‘Total delusion’ said another. ‘Verifiably untrue’ said a third.
It’s not that they doubt Theresa May is working to take the UK out of the EU. It’s just they cannot see how it is remotely possible that departure can be achieved in the less than eight weeks remaining before the official leaving day.
And unless she is explicitly saying that she is now working towards the most chaotic no-deal Brexit imaginable, which they don’t believe is yet official policy, then they just cannot conceive how 29 March is a realistic date – because there is massively too much legislation to pass through parliament.
But to be frank, that is the least of their anxieties.
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