The Liberal Democrats have demanded that Theresa May “started acting like a prime minister” after open briefing broke out against rival Brexit positions in her own government, as reported on the front page of The Times.

Liberal Democrat MP and former cabinet minister Alistair Carmichael said:

“The prime minister cannot allow members of her government to undermine the Chancellor. She must call in the guilty parties to urgently explain themselves after they went beyond government policy by seeking to bounce the prime minister and the Chancellor into an even more extreme Brexit than the one they were planning.

“That an aide to the Chancellor and a Brexit minister can organise a revolt against the apparent official policy of their own government suggests that this Conservative administration is in some kind of meltdown.

“It is very hard to see how Suella Fernandes can remain as an aide to the very Chancellor she is apparently undermining.

“Surely now, in the interests of presenting a united front in negotiations on behalf of the United Kingdom, Theresa May must assert her authority. It is time she acted like a prime minister.”