Former head of the UK civil service Lord O'Donnell in The Times and on BBC radio 27 Aug 2016
- handling Brexit would be an unprecedented challenge for UK govt and civil service
- he wouldn't be in a rush to trigger Article 50
- govt must first work out a strategic plan strategic plan to say "what kind of UK do we want, what's our place in the world, what are we trying to achieve in these negotiations'".
- PM May faces a "really difficult job"
- UK could remain in a "looser" EU
- will take parliament years and years and years" to separate fully from Brussels
"It very much depends what happens to public opinion and whether the EU changes before then,"
He later told the BBC he did not think the EU would make the radical changes needed for the UK to remain a member.
"The probability of us not leaving is very, very low and we need to get on and implement the people's decision"
Lord O'Donnell is an economist who also served as press secretary under John Major, and then as cabinet secretary - the UK's most senior civil servant - in the govts of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron.
Conjecture and more conjecture over the timing of pushing the Article 50 button and the unknowns of the subsequent fallout for the UK, and indeed the EU.
This latest development is not a story to really impact on the pound in its own right but one gathering some column inches here at the moment.
Lord O'Donnell - Brexit is an unprecedented challenge
