Jeremy Wright, QC, denies feeling battered and bruised, despite weekly battles with his ministerial colleagues to keep them in line. He has to issue constant reminders that as long as the UK is in the EU, they have to toe the line over its rules and regulations, right up to the point the UK actually leaves.

“Brexit is a big challenge,” he says. “It is a challenge for me because my job is to give the government the right legal advice and one aspect of that is to make clear, for as long as we are members of the EU, regardless of any transition, that for that time we are obliged under our international legal obligations to comply with EU law.

“The closer to the