Prime Minister Theresa May will deny it, but Whitehall now appears panicked over the increasing possibility of a hard Brexit.

How else does one explain a week in which: Mrs May removed control of negotiations with the European Union from new Brexit secretary Dominic Raab; foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt warned of the ‘very real risk’ of a crash-out; and chancellor Philip Hammond finally provided ‘no deal’ guarantees that EU regional and education funds would be underwritten by the Treasury until 2020?