Here he is at the People's Pledge Congress for an EU Referendum on the 22nd October 2011

‘Perhaps I am being a bit harsh, but it’s about time we became a bit harsh,’ says Frans Timmermans.

The reality of Brexit is starting to hit us all - and even those who voted to leave the EU are getting upset.

"Good to see the BBC wading into the fray at last, now that the damage it's causing is too great to conceal", one person said.

Former PM in four-letter tirade against Sunak’s new Brexit deal.

PM opens debate in parliament, with vote after 4pm expected to be tight. / The government is also under pressure from a group of philanthropists, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who said over the weekend that they would provide £93.5m emergency funding to cover some of the UK aid cuts.

‘We are better than this – or at least, we used to be’, says David Davis.

Drawing on their recent article, Tim Bale and Karl Pike explore the consequences of the ‘Merkel myth’ for Brexit – the notion that the key to UK withdrawal lay with Angela Merkel.

This is my last Brexit Briefing. / Because it is the last it is longer than usual. A long goodbye if you will. Over the past 5 years I have written 130 of them, following the twists and turns of the Brexit saga, as various UK actors came and went upon the stage, generally full of sound and fury, but often signifying little.

We need the word “rejoin“ to have the same weight and significance as the word “Brexit“.

Entries in the famous Davis Downside Dossier hit the one thousand mark this week – and still counting.

This week, the practical realities of what Brexit is going to mean came into central focus for perhaps the first time, with a new government information campaign.

‘The project is probably now unsalvageable’, says former PM’s old employer. / The Conservatives have made such a “hash” of Brexit that the project is probably “unsalvageable”, according to Boris Johnson’s favourite newspaper.

Protesters demanding a second referendum on Brexit mocked David Davis on Saturday by unfurling a banner emblazoned with one of the former cabinet minister’s old statements. / Quote comes from a speech by former DExEU secretary in 2012.

Sugar cane importer Tate & Lyle Sugars, which was very vocal in supporting the campaign to Leave the European Union, is set to benefit from several government measures. / Former Brexit secretary, David Davis, worked for Tate & Lyle Sugars for almost two decades.

In January 2020, as Britain was about to exit the EU, a post appeared on the London School of Economics (LSE) blog musing about the mechanism and conditions that might apply if Britain ever wanted to re-join.

All this past week, Jon Danzig has been posting videos reminding us of the fatal flaws in the Brexit referendum and demonstrating that it was a sham.

David Davis suggested the turn in fortunes could be because the UK media have stopped “kicking Brussels all the time”.

Former European trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said trying to circumnavigate Brussels was always going to backfire.

The former Brexit secretary, David Davis, has suggested this week that the UK might not have to pay a “divorce” settlement to Brussels if we leave the EU without a deal. So can we really cut and run?

The formal warning demands written assurances from the think tank that it will not engage in further political campaigning.

Ministers are facing a clash with opposition and Conservative MPs over their plans to scrap EU-era laws copied over to UK law after Brexit.

First came Brexit. Now comes Britain’s bonfire of European laws. / Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is pushing ahead with a contentious plan to remove all remaining European Union laws from Britain’s statute book by the end of 2023, despite opponents’ claims that the move is rash and unworkable.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis was mocked and criticised by Brussels figures during torturous EU exit negotiations, with one adviser suggesting he did not “give a f**k” about the Irish border, a new documentary reveals.

"They should be held when people can view all the arguments for and against and when those arguments have been rigorously tested. In short, referendums should be held when people know exactly what they are getting." / "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."

"No one involved in this project seems to want to take any responsibility for the outcome," said one person in response.

Brexit secretary David Davis has been mocked for claiming that Britain can secure a free trade area that's "10 times the size" of the European Union. / Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder pointed out that this would actually be 1.5 times bigger than the entire world economy.

Former Brexit secretary receives £3,000 an hour for consultancy role with JCB.

The former Brexit secretary has dismissed as ‘propaganda’ frequent references to his comments in 2016 about Brexit having no downsides.

Northern Ireland, food prices, the ease of a deal - it turns out that many of the claims made by those advocating Brexit were not quite true...

EU officials involved with Brexit negotiations privately considered aspects of Theresa May’s approach “insane” and “pathetic”, a new behind-the-scenes documentary shows. / BBC camera crews were given access to Brexit officials in the European Parliament to make Brexit: Behind Closed Doors, a two-part series focusing on the team around Guy Verhofstadt.

The EU referendum was entirely flawed according to criteria set by former Brexit Secretary and ardent Brexiter, David Davis, on how referendums should be “done properly”.

David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary, has admitted he privately agreed with campaigner Gina Miller taking the government, of which he was a part at the time, to court over Article 50.

Critics said it was 'disgusting' Mr Davis had been offered the role having 'failed to properly plan for Brexit and storming out of the cabinet'.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis has claimed he 'misspoke' when he previously said there would be a trade deal with the EU ready for the day the UK leaves the trading bloc.

Head of employers’ federation says integrity of single market more important than making good business with Britain. / German industrialists have warned that British hopes of their support in Brexit negotiations are misplaced and could backfire with dangerous consequences for international trade.

'...it is a good time to take stock of the Gibraltar strand of Brexit and how that intertwines with the Brexit saga and, ultimately, to the extent that it does represent a certain kind of completion, a good time to take stock of Brexit itself.'

David Davis says he wants the Brexit Bill to pass with ‘no strings attached’.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis says Priti Patel’s plans could foster a situation similar to notorious US detention camp.

'It is hard to predict how full Brexit would play out, because this scale of multiple simultaneous renegotiations of global trade agreements is unprecedented – and no country has ever left the EU. It certainly can’t be assumed that Britain is bound to get quick and good deals because it is a large economy.'

UK and French officials in war of words as holidaymakers hit by long delays.

The Retained EU Law Bill would scrap over 4,000 pieces of legislation. / Rishi Sunak has started to retreat from plans to push forward the potentially disastrous Retained EU Law bill, one report has claimed.

It will “take a decade” to resolve the crisis inflicted on Ireland by Brexit and the border checks created in the Irish Sea, David Davis has suggested.

This is the moment James O'Brien reacts to former Brexit Secretary David Davis telling LBC that the haulage industry's failure to act has led to post-Brexit tanker and HGV driver shortages.

Boris Johnson agreed in the final hours of the Northern Ireland Protocol negotiations that there would be customs declarations on goods exiting Northern Ireland to Britain, despite the fact that just three weeks later he told businesses in the North there would be "no forms, no checks, no barriers of any kind…," according to a detailed new account of the protocol negotiations.

Brexit secretary David Davis said this week that no one ever said leaving the EU would be "simple or easy". Except all these times that people did.

"I often wonder whether, in the privacy of their own homes, they replay the claims and promises they made and compare it with the outcomes delivered."

David Davis claims medicine and banking bodies will not have to leave Canary Wharf.

A broad coalition of London leaders have called on Government to recognise the damage that the wrong Brexit deal could inflict on the city.

The men behind Trussonomics and Brexit, the two great man-made catastrophes of recent years, are to be honoured for their ‘great work’.

Labour MP alleges Elizabeth Denham was warned by counter-terrorism officers and that ‘her office had to be swept’.

Michael Gove has failed to name a single change from Brexit that has “made business easier”, as criticism of the economic harm from the trade deal grows.

Brexit has failed to deliver any notable economic benefits, more than six years after the vote to leave the EU, David Davis has admitted.

With a potential trade war looming, Conservatives are stuck in an ever-more destructive disagreement over what Britain should look like outside the EU.

If Northern Ireland opts for reunification it would have the ability to join the European Union as part of the Republic after Brexit, a leaked ministerial letter has indicated.

The collapse of Liz Truss’s authority is the logical conclusion of the anti-EU cult that has wrecked Britain’s economy over the last six years. / When asked about Brexit, Carney managed to sound diplomatic while also lobbing a hand grenade. “Put it this way,” he said. “In 2016 the British economy was 90% the size of Germany’s. Now it is less than 70%.”

The BBC’s Analysis editor Ros Atkins looks at the controversy surrounding the government’s plan to scrap thousands of EU-era laws.

The MPs have joined a cross-party group calling on ministers to declare which Brussels-made rules will be removed from British statute books.

The MPs have joined a cross-party group calling on ministers to declare which Brussels-made rules will be removed from British statute books.

Plans to scrap all remaining EU-made laws in the UK by the end of the year have cleared the Commons amid criticism from a senior Brexiteer that the process is not democratic and “possibly incompetent”.

Northern Ireland minister’s proposal comes after PM denied plans for Swiss-style relationship with EU.

Davis famously said there would be no downsides to Brexit only considerable upsides

In October 2016, David Davis, the then Brexit secretary, told the House of Commons that “there will be no downside to Brexit at all, and considerable upsides”. / On this page we list the ‘considerable upsides’ and also the downsides...

(Compare claims made by David Davis to the current reality.)

London (CNN)Three turbulent years after 17 million British people voted to leave the European Union, Brexit has grown from a quaint word to an ugly cloud hanging over the nation.

Speaking on LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, David Davis said the European Research Group (ERG), and those on the right of the Tory Party, who want to undermine the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) are "playing with Brexit fire" and risk "destroying Brexit" over proposed amends to the Rwanda immigration Bill.

Amendment to withdrawal bill not picked - in blow to scores of hard Brexit-backing Conservative MPs.

Jacob Rees-Mogg says the benefits of leaving the EU may not be felt for 50 years – and he’s not the only Eurosceptic asking the people of Britain to wait patiently.

New border checks in Kent and elsewhere reverse 47 years of removal of trade barriers.

The most important Brexit event of the week came and went with relatively little fanfare, yet it marks a significant moment.

The E Foundation worked with UK thinktank on Brexit and is alleged to favour weakening EU food regulations.

David Davis told me ... that the "row of the summer" would be ... the EU's desire to negotiate money we owe, the rights of migrants and Ireland's borders before talking about a trade deal. / Today, the Brexit secretary became the pussycat of the summer - in the eyes of Brussels - as he declared his pleasure that Brexit negotiations would indeed be in the sequence desired by the rest of the EU.

As part of our special edition looking at five years since the EU referendum, Alastair Campbell looks at the silence of the Leavers.

There is an air of desperation in attacks from those on the right and their supporters in the press. They fear if Johnson falls, the Brexit deception will crumble too.

The vote to leave the EU has sparked a clash between sugar-cane importers and farmers producing homegrown sugar beet. Is this bitter skirmish a microcosm of the big battles to come?

The former minister was asked: 'Do you regret at times sounding like it was an easy task?'