Speaking to Emma Barnett on Radio 5 Live, Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell, has finally admitted the UK was “obviously” wrong to agree to the EU’s demand that the divorce negotiations take place before the future relationship negotiations. Hindsight is a wonderful thing…

When asked what went wrong in the negotiations, the newly ennobled Lord Barwell said:

“[The EU setting the order of negotiations] made it harder… that split is what essentially led to the backstop. Because at the point that you’re having your divorce you haven’t settled what your relationship is going to be like in the future, the EU argued that – both to protect their single market, and also to keep the border in Ireland as it is today – you needed some kind of insurance policy.”

If May hadn’t agreed to it in the first place, perhaps the negotiations would have actually gone bar-well…