The Prime Minister stood on a platform of getting Brexit done: taking back control of our cash, our borders, our laws and our fishing. None of the foregoing promises can be made good for as long as the UK remains in the Transition Period and therefore in the Single Market, Customs Union and subject to the supremacy of the Court of Justice of the European. It was for that reason that he also promised that the transition period would not be extended beyond the end of 2020.

No doubt the coronavirus is bound to take up a great deal of the government’s attention, but it would be ridiculous to suggest that its attention is so distracted that it cannot fulfil its central manifesto pledge – a pledge which followed many many others like it by the Conservative Party over a period of nearly four years. The Prime Minister himself is on the record saying that he would rather be dead in a ditch than not leave the EU. In the absence of finding a suitably sized ditch, he must not fail to fulfil the contract he entered into with the British people on 12 December 2019.

Actually, as awful as the virus is, it strengthens the UK’s hand in negotiations.