Jeremy Hunt has become the first senior Cabinet Minister to openly admit that the Government is considering delaying Brexit beyond the 29^th March. Hunt was asked on the Today Programme:

“It is likely, isn’t it, that there will need to be a technical delay in leaving the European Union?”

Hunt: “I think that depends on how long this process takes, it is true that if we ended up approving a deal in the days before the 29th of March then we might need some extra time to pass critical legislation, but if we’re able to make progress sooner then that might not be necessary…”

For weeks now Theresa May has been refusing to explicitly rule out extending Article 50 when pushed on it – this intervention confirms mounting suspicions that May’s preference is to extend Article 50 rather than leave with no deal. Whatever the Government’s private intentions, it won’t help their renegotiation efforts in Brussels one bit if they start publicly taking the time pressure off the EU side. It’s a slippery slope from a few days’ “technical delay” to a full-blown rolling extension of Article 50…