When Theresa May began her address to the nation at 8.25pm on Wednesday, her former head of strategy, Chris Wilkins, was in Beirut — a city that has become a byword over four decades for internecine conflict and political warfare. Earlier that day a political operative said to him: “Goodness, your politics is screwed.”

A chastened Wilkins flew home and as he landed he digested the fact that his old boss had just delivered a tub-thumping address down the barrel of a TV camera accusing MPs of seeking to thwart her Brexit deal. “Two years on, MPs have been unable to agree a way to implement the UK’s withdrawal,” she said. “As a result, we will now not leave on time with a deal on