The department in charge of Brexit could be absorbed by a beefed-up Foreign Office after the UK leaves the European Union next year, it has been suggested.

Discussions over the future of the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) have begun in Whitehall, with a merger with Boris Johnson’s department now on the cards.

Politico reports that senior officials in Westminster believe that David Davis’s department cannot continue operating as a standalone entity beyond 2019 because it would send the wrong signal that Britain has not truly left the EU.

According to one insider, the Government feels it has “give people concrete evidence that we’ve left the EU. That has to happen as soon as we’ve left.”

However, it is uncertain whether such a move would take place before March 2019, when Britain is due to formally leave the bloc, due to fears that much of the detail of the withdrawal agreement will not be completed until the transition period begins.