Jeremy Hunt has just given a speech on ‘No Deal’ preparations at Policy Exchange, setting out his ten point plan to leave. It is well known that Hunt campaigned for remaining in the EU in 2016, Hunt now says he accepts the outcome of the referendum and Brexit must be done. Today he is going further and says he wants to ramp up planning for no deal, yet even over the course of the last few months, he has repeatedly hit out at ‘No Deal’ – a course of action he is today saying he would be willing to deliver. He’s described it as a victory for Vladimir Putin, ‘deeply damaging’ and in the last year he said that this country would “regret [it] for generations”…

• July 23, 2018 “Only person rejoicing [about No Deal] would be Putin.”
• January 2, 2019 “A no deal Brexit would cause disruption that could last some time. Even if you are someone who believes that Britain will flourish and prosper, whatever that disruption might be, that is not something that any government should willingly wish upon its people”
• February 20, 2019 “So none of us should have any doubt that failing to secure a ratified Withdrawal Agreement between Britain and the EU would be deeply damaging, politically as well as economically.”
• July 17, 2018 “[No Deal] would be a mistake we would regret for generations”

Who to believe? Jeremy Hunt of a few months ago, or the Jeremy Hunt who is today desperate to burnish his Brexit credentials to an electorate sympathetic to ‘No Deal’?