Opposition parties and pro-remain groups have criticised the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, after he admitted that until recently he did not fully appreciate the importance of the Dover-Calais crossing for UK trade.

Boris Johnson’s days as prime minister may be finally numbered but the damage his government has done will live on, not least in the scientific community where over 100 prestigious EU grants have been withdrawn as the row over the Northern Ireland Protocol poisons relations.

“The reason the UK will have the lowest growth in the G7 next year is Brexit. We’re not going to reverse the decline until we begin to remove the barriers – economic, social, scientific – that we chose to erect with the rest of our continent. That’s not rocket science. Just say it.”