Nigel Farage prides himself on being a man of the people so when he tweeted recently that “Maybe, just maybe, we should have a second referendum on EU membership” it was presumably because he sensed the popular mood moving in that direction. The former Ukip leader swiftly backtracked under pressure from his fellow Eurosceptics, of course, but he was right about public opinion. A poll at the weekend found voters support having a final say on Brexit by a margin of 16 points (excluding the “don’t knows”), with 58 per cent favouring another vote once the terms of the deal are known, compared with 42 per cent against.

What once seemed politically out of the question is now moving into the realms of the possible.