Despite Boris’s insistence that all Ministers have to be on board with leaving the EU on the 31st October, deal or no deal, it seems not all of his new appointments are quite so enamoured with his policy. Transport Minister George Freeman this morning appeared on the Huffington Post podcast ‘Commons People’ and launched into an anti-no deal rant, claiming that “WTO long-term” would be an “absolute disaster that would leave my party out of office for decades”. Not exactly the Downing Street line to take…

Freeman freestyling on message doesn’t seem to just be confined to podcasts, his Big Tent Ideas Festival this year has a rather unexpected lineup for an event originally billed as coming from the “small c, pro-enterprise, innovation and reforming branch of Conservatism”. Guido is struggling to tell it apart from a Labour fringe event:

• Seema Malhotra. Labour MP
• Lisa Nandy. Labour MP
• Darren Jones. Labour MP
• Peter Kyle. One of the chief agitators for a second referendum
• Ash Sarkar. Literally a communist
• Damian Collins. Former Carole Cadwalla-borator-in-Chief
• Nora Mulready. Former Change UK Candidate
• Ayesha Hazarika. Former Brown, Harman and Miliband advisor
• Isi Daley and Amanda Chetwynd-Cowieson. Full-time Remain activists
• Miatta Fahnbulleh. CEO of nutty hard-left think tank NEF
• Jacqui Smith. Former Labour Home Secretary
• Erica Ramos. NUS and second referendum supporter
• Rory Stewart. One of the most right-wing people there…

In Freeman’s defence there are some Tory Brexiteers going including Bob Seely, Penny Mordaunt and Liam Halligan, although they’re firmly in the minority. He’s going to need a pretty big tent…