Peter Mandelson is an expert in political survival. The Labour veteran dubbed “the prince of darkness” held three cabinet positions, two of which saw him returning despite having been accused of impropriety and effectively ousted.

So when Mandelson warns that the Conservative government “is driven not by economics, but by politics,” he knows of which he speaks. With the political fortunes of the cabinet balanced on a knife-edge, the 64-year-old power lobbyist and peer insists that “the government doesn’t want to know about the potential havoc facing the country’s businesses”. Business remains complacent about the risk of a hard Brexit, he says.