Brexit: Cox says 'article of faith' to leave EU

It's worth it.

That's the message from one of the most prominent Brexiteers to Tories frothing with rage at the government's offer to work with Jeremy Corbyn.

Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General, who has had a vital role in this crisis, and for many Eurosceptics was seen as one of their own, has been defending the cabinet's fraught decision in an interview with the BBC this afternoon.

It's remarkable to hear from one of those who argued that Labour's plan for Brexit is a 'fantasy' for so long, that now it might be a price worth paying.

The reason for him is clear, and it seems almost that he is willing to leave under any circumstances even adopting their political enemies' plans.

Mr Cox told me it is an "article of faith" to get Brexit done, telling me "if we were not to leave because we were unprepared to in the situation we now face to move any of the red lines we have set we would effectively, never leave at all".

In his trademark formal booming tones, the Attorney General essentially tells his Eurosceptic colleagues to get real, and they 'would have bitten the arm off the Prime Minister' to leave even with a customs union - "I hope that my colleagues will see the important thing is to leave".

With fever high in Westminster this afternoon, the chances of some of them seeing that seem slim, at least today.

What might please his Brexiteer colleagues is that he wouldn't be drawn on giving Labour any legal guarantees on a deal that might be brokered.

Indeed, Mr Cox seems to suggest any compromise over the future relationship with the EU wouldn't bind a future government in any case; he says nothing could be a "political straitjacket" once we have actually left the EU.

He says: "Once we have reached the open sea, we can charter our own course. But if we never leave, we may never leave at all and that is what is important."

But for the Labour Party, that is one of the main problems with trying to do a deal at all.

With another prime minister along sooner rather than later, would they, could they, be able to trust anything that Theresa May can offer?