Despite the various opinion poll leads predicting a Brexit majority on 23 June I have always personally held the view that on the night sanity will prevail and the nation will vote to remain. But after several recent conversations with leading councillors, who after all are close to the action, the alarm bells are ringing. As if overtaken by mass hysteria voters appear to be ignoring all the well-researched warnings from economists such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies about the negative impact on the economy and therefore on public services from a Brexit and are deciding entirely on emotional grounds – ie about immigration and ‘independence.'

One pro-Remain Conservative leader of a unitary in a prosperous southern town dotted with the European headquarters of multinationals said virtually his entire Conservative group is pro-Brexit. Indeed, despite almost nil unemployment, prosperity and the presence of European HQs in his constituency he predicted his voters would also back Brexit. The ex-Tory leader of a prosperous London borough told me his group was overwhelmingly pro-Brexit and that he had even encountered Tory councillors handing out Ukip leaflets. Labour meanwhile was keeping its head down locally.