Six weeks after Alistair Burt resigned as Foreign Minister to rebel on Brexit, Theresa May has yet to appoint his replacement as Middle East minister. Not like it’s a region of key geopolitical importance or anything…

Now Burt has taken the extraordinary step of begging for his job back, telling Sam Coates:

“I fully accept the responsibility for my resignation lies with me and no-one else – I took a stand [over Brexit]. But the situation in the Middle East is such that the government must appoint someone to my old FCO role. I would dearly love to do it myself – although I recognise the delicacy of this and I accept the situation I’m in.”

Burt is a committed Remainer, though he was generally well-regarded as a competent and effective Middle East minister. He’s apparently recanted on the need to be outside government he claims because  the government has de facto moved in his direction. Surely they couldn’t take him back… could they?

UPDATE: Burt has not got his job back – the Government have finally announced that it’s gone to Andrew Murrison instead. Only 44 days without a Foreign Minister for one of the world’s most crucial regions…

This seems to have gone unnoticed: Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt is running a survey on his website asking his constituents if they want a second referendum.

He writes that constituents have emailed him who are “angry and concerned about how [the Brexit] process is progressing”.

Entertaining the idea of a second referendum is clearly a major breach of government policy. What is Burt playing at? Imagine if a leave supporting minister surveyed their constituents asking if they want no deal. There would be outrage.

The latest round of reshuffle appointments has seen Alistair Burt, Alok Sharma, Mark Field and Mark Lancaster promoted to Minister of State level. All of them Remainers…

The penny has dropped this afternoon that the PM’s new chief of staff Gavin Barwell has been slotting in Remainers where ever he can. The replacement of fervent Brexiteer David Jones as Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union was remarkable. Guido understands that Jones – who led the Welsh arm of the Vote Leave campaign – was replaced by Baroness Anelay without reference to his boss David Davis. That raised eyebrows…

Insiders grumble that the charming Barwell, an arch-Remainer, blames the loss of his Croydon seat on Brexit, London being a Remain stronghold. He is taking the opportunity of being restored to the centre of power to put pro-Remain allies into positions of influence. Barwell is also being blamed for the clumsy “end to austerity” spin. Hardly anyone on the Tory backbenches thinks that the loss of a 24 point lead in a 7 week election was due to voters changing their views on fiscal prudence. Britain was not suddenly converted to the merits of harvesting magic money trees…

The latest attempt to frustrate Brexit comes in the form of Tory MPs seeking a white paper so there can be “greater debate” in the Commons, a demand being made by Remainers Anna Soubry, Alistair Burt and Nicky Morgan. Worth looking at how their constituencies voted (numbers from Chris Hanretty). Soubry’s Broxtowe voted 52% to Leave. Burt’s North East Bedfordshire voted 53% to Leave. Morgan’s Loughborough local authority also voted to Leave, though her seat estimate is bang down the middle 50-50. There have already been murmurings of disquiet among Broxtowe Tories upset with Soubry’s decision to defy her constituents, while in Loughborough the Tory association deputy chair has said of NiMo “I’ve no idea what she’s playing at”. That local unrest is only going to get worse…