David Davis laughs off claims he supported the public changing their minds

His words – taken from a speech on Europe in 2012 – were read back to him on the BBC’s Marr show.

At the time he said: ‘If a democracy cannot change its mind it ceases to be democracy. We should not ask people to vote on a blank sheet of paper and tell them to trust us to fill in the details afterwards. Referendums should be held when people know exactly what they’re getting.’

Marr asked: ‘Are you going to announce your support for the People’s Vote?’

However the former Brexit secretary laughed off the suggestion before blustering his way through an answer.

‘No, certainly not. Let me tell you why not. I mean, the point about referendums is that they are once in a generation. The other thing you didn’t read out of that is that they are a once in a generation thing,’ he said.

‘We had an argument lasting a year or more over whether we should leave or stay, and the British public came to the judgement.’

He added: ‘If we try to have another referendum, what would the European Union do? They’ve already tried to make this a tough negotiation. They would give us the worst outcome possible in order to encourage a referendum vote to stay in. That’s why we don’t need a referendum now.’