No dealers must dream on: A conversation with Ivan Rogers

Sir Ivan Rogers was in conversation at the Institute for Government. This is an edited transcript of his thoughts on why no-deal isn’t a sustainable outcome, whether there should be a public inquiry into Brexit – and why, when it comes to negotiations, the difficult bit is still to come:

Ivan Rogers: Once you get into the trade deal and the economic deal and then associated security and other deals, this is actually the complex bit still to come. It’s much more complex and involves much more of Whitehall, and should involve Westminster a lot more than the exercise to date. I’m not disparaging the exercise to date, but that’s solely about withdrawal terms and then a rather vague political declaration.

I said in the Spiegel interview that the political declaration is vague, primarily because the Brits wanted it vague, because it is still not terribly clear where we’re going and there are obvious divisions within the government and across the House as to where we’re going.