Theresa May had left No 10 and arrived in her Maidenhead constituency when one of her political team called her away to take an urgent call early on Friday evening.
She had had a draining day overseeing the manhunt for the Parsons Green bomber and was due to announce that the national terrorism threat level was being raised.
The prime minister listened in silence as she was told that Boris Johnson’s office had just emailed a 4,200-word article setting out his vision for Brexit. It was due to be published on The Daily Telegraph’s website within the next few hours, she was told.
In fact she already knew. Mr Johnson had spoken to her earlier in the day to alert her. The foreign secretary