On Tuesday night, as I write in the magazine this week, Theresa May met Leave-voting junior ministers. Her aim was to reassure them that she didn’t want an Article 50 extension and if there was one, it would be short. One of those present then asked her what would happen if Olly Robbins came back saying that a short extension was not negotiable. May was visibly irritated by this comment and shot back, ‘I don’t just do what Olly Robbins tells me to.’ She went on to say that a long extension ‘would be seen as a betrayal by the public’.
This exchange is, I think, revealing. First, it shows how frustrated these ministers are. The exchange about Robbins wasn’t the only hostile questioning. I am told there were repeated complaints about there being two classes of minister, those who have to back government policy and those who don’t.
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