The Daily Mail's Brexit volte face has left a hole in British politics

Generally, journalists shouldn’t talk shop about the press in mixed company. But an exception should be made, I reckon, for the Daily Mail, which has had for so long a unique place in national life as a political player in its own right. It gave a voice to a tribe: the socially conservative and it was, most obviously, the house journal and campaigning expression of Brexit: the full-fat version.

All that changed when Geordie Greig, an urbane, likeable and intelligent Etonian, replaced Paul Dacre last year as editor, but it’s only now that the changes are really working through. This week, the Mail’s former parliamentary sketch writer, Quentin Letts surfaced in the Times, having left the Mail of his own volition, possibly not wholly enchanted by its volte face on Brexit. The Mail is now the one paper which supports the PM’s line on the issue with anything like enthusiasm. Whereas previously, it had lots of time for the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg, now it wrinkles its nose at Brexiteers and the ERG as a bit, you know, swivel-eyed.