Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Oliver Letwin left holding the Brexit baby

Last week’s announcement that Oliver Letwin would be charged with putting together different models of Brexit for whoever takes over as Prime Minister to adopt didn’t necessarily reassure that many Tory MPs. Today the head of that Brexit unit came under sustained fire from MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee who seemed staggered not just that the government had done no contingency planning for Britain voting to leave the EU but also that the new unit didn’t yet seem to know what it was doing.

So many of the Committee’s questions received the same answers, all along the lines of ‘I can’t tell you that’ or ‘it’s not in my gift’ to do this. The minister told the MPs present that the Prime Minister thought it was important to have a Commissioner after the departure of Lord Hill, but couldn’t say when that allegedly important new appointment would be.

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