David Davis claimed on Sunday that his new Department for Exiting the European Union would have nearly 200 new staff

The Foreign Office is fighting a turf war to prevent David Davis from poaching its most experienced and talented officials for his new Brexit ministry.

Mr Davis claimed on Sunday that his new Department for Exiting the European Union would have nearly 200 new staff and that he would have the pick of “the most brilliant people” from across Whitehall to work for him.

“We’ve got ten people for every job so clearly fast-track civil servants see this as the place to be,” he said.

Mr Davis also implicitly suggested that he would be giving orders to his fellow cabinet minister Liam Fox, the new secretary of state for international trade, when he declared that he was “not going to set Liam targets”.

Senior government