The third degree

Back page gossip from the 16 January issue of Research Fortnight.

Last train to Clarksville? You know that the government is in trouble when a loyalist such as business secretary Greg Clark takes to the airwaves to say, “We can’t go on like this,” and suggests that a no-deal Brexit should be taken off the table. Clark backed prime minister Theresa May in the 2016 leadership campaign, but now he is pressing for parliament to express its view on a second referendum.

Dr Clark is known around Westminster as something of a Remainer. He is part of a group of Conservative Europhiles dubbed “the breakfast club”, after the 1985 movie about five disaffected students given detention overseen by an unpopular teacher.