Only Theresa May can end the confusion over the Cabinet’s approach to Brexit

The contradictory messages will continue unless the vacuum of our Brexit strategy is filled when the Prime Minister makes a speech on the issue in September

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox (Rex Features)

Just when it seemed that a consensus was emerging in the Cabinet over what Brexit really might mean, Liam Fox has characteristically popped up to show that the truce is fragile at best, and non-existent at worst. The International Trade Secretary, a Brexiteer, dismissed the idea that the Government has agreed free movement will continue in all but name for up to three years when the UK formally leaves the EU in March 2019. This was suggested last week by Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, and Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, who backed Remain last year and who are now trying to ensure that the hard Brexit planned by Theresa May does not inflict economic self-harm.

Dr Fox told The Sunday Times that continued free movement would “not keep faith” with the referendum decision. In a warning shot at Mr Hammond, he said any transitional deal “has to be an agreement by the Cabinet” and “can’t just be made by an individual or any group within the Cabinet.”

Dr Fox is chomping at the bit to conclude trade deals with non-EU countries and wary of anything that would delay or prevent that, since he might then in effect be out of a job. That puts him at odds with Mr Hammond, who is sceptical that a bonanza of free trade deals could compensate quickly for the market of 500 million people on our doorstep, and so wants us to stick close to the EU. Mr Hammond is right; as he has argued, people did not vote Leave in the referendum to become poorer or less secure.

The International Trade Secretary had no need to quibble about the Hammond-Rudd approach; the Chancellor made clear on Friday that the UK will leave the single market and customs union in 2019. Dr Fox, like his fellow Brexiteers David Davis and Michael Gove, has accepted that a transitional deal will be needed, saying it would be worth waiting another two years to achieve something he has wanted for more than 40.

This latest skirmish between the Cabinet’s pragmatists and ideologues will almost certainly not be the last. But it will not help the UK’s cause in the already difficult negotiations with the 27 EU members. Nor will it reassure British business, which is desperate for some clarity on Brexit after a wasted year since the referendum. Companies such as airlines will soon need to finalise their plans for 2019. Others will be making decisions on investment and jobs. They and the important financial sector will have to assume the worst unless they have any reason to prepare for a better outcome. The whole point of Mr Hammond’s welcome and long overdue initiative was to offer some certainty to business and individuals that life would continue as normal after Brexit day. Dr Fox’s loose talk has undermined his efforts.

The Government needs to speak with one voice on Brexit and there is only one person who can ensure that. Since her election disaster eight weeks ago, Theresa May has been virtually silent on the most crucial question facing the country. When she returns from her holiday, she needs to get a grip. There is no point in stamping out leaks from Cabinet meetings if her ministers parade their differences in public.

The contradictory messages will continue unless the vacuum of our Brexit strategy is filled when the Prime Minister makes a speech on the issue in September. The time for meaningless slogans and nods and winks by Cabinet ministers is over; clarity and certainty are needed urgently.