A fearful shadow is hanging over our impending Brexit negotations with the EU – and it centres on the very people who were most vocal in calling for a referendum in the first place: those senior Tory Eurosceptics, including the “Three Brexiteers” now billed to play the lead roles in the negotiations. What became painfully clear during the campaign was not just that the official Leavers were unable to offer a coherent “exit plan”, but that they also seemed to be woefully ignorant of the technical complexities involved in any process of leaving the EU.

Although they did not share any common strategy, the likes of Boris Johnson, David Davis, Liam Fox, Bill Cash and Co, came up with one naïve suggestion after another, based on nothing more than wishful thinking.

In practical terms, they showed that they did not really have a clue what they were talking about. Some even imagined that we could leave simply by repealing the European Communities Act, under which EU law automatically becomes British law: not realising how flagrant a break this would be of international treaty law, as enshrined in Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on treaties.

If these people have one thing in common it is their insistence that we cannot remain part of the EU’s single market, because this would require us to accept uncontrolled immigration from within the EU under its freedom of movement rules. They thus sneer at any thought that we should go for the immediate off-the-shelf solution of remaining in the European Economic Area (EEA), while joining countries such as Norway in the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). This would allow us to continue trading with the single market just as we do now. We would even gain a limited right to control our borders, and would also be free to strike trade deals with non-EU countries such as America and India.