It is going to be a week for leaks.

Yes indeed.  And for Leak One, it looks like Mr Oliver Robbins is getting in first with his “It Wisnae Me, Mister. Honest!” as Mrs May, to use her own analogy, looks like she could be on the wrong side of a cricket score.    

Correspondence leaked to the Telegraph shows that he was apparently in fact not the bad guy in all this but the shinning knight.    

So what do these leaks tell us?  Well firstly, Mr Robbins no longer secret warning to Mrs May that the customs backstop is a “bad outcome” for the UK.   

Why?  Well, it’s kind of obvious to the rest of us, no matter if we are Remainers or Leavers.  It will see regulatory checks in the Irish Sea and put security co-operation at risk the leak suggests.      

Is it not quite remarkable that, in the week before the Commons has to take a vote, such evidence is only now coming to light?   In a direct quote Mr Robbins said: “We should not forget that the backstop world, even with a UK-EU customs union, is a bad outcome with regulatory controls needed somewhere between GB and NI, serious and visible frictions and process between GB and the EU, and no security co-operation provided for.”    

Leaks usually are made for a reason  This one to the Telegraph was apparently by a concerned Minister. Or perhaps Mr Robbins is seeing the ship is sinking fast and he doesn’t want to go down with the captain.  Did he know or encourage the selective leak?  His career both in the civil service and the apparent lucrative offers in the City would be well gone.  Hence the “It Wisnae Me, Mister”.