Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, the prime minister’s former chiefs of staff, have departed Downing Street

Theresa May arrived back from Brussels last night and headed straight for Sonning, the village near Maidenhead where she has her constituency residence.

Since her election humiliation she is said to be spending more time in the house she regards as home. Even on weekdays she is avoiding the private Downing Street flat, choosing instead to be driven in to London early in the morning with her husband, Philip.

Morning meetings, once a fixed point of her No 10 routine, are becoming more of an exception than a rule. One merciful consequence is no one has to read out to the prime minister her relentlessly negative press coverage.

The atmosphere, frenetic before the election, is funereal. A deathly hush has fallen on rooms once bustling