THE intergovernmental Joint Ministerial Committee is to reconvene “in the autumn,” Damian Green, the First Secretary of State, has confirmed.

Opposition parties had complained that there had been no JMC, which involves the UK, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Governments, since February.

Whitehall sources said the deadlock over the resumption of Stormont had been to blame and over the summer Mr Green resorted to bilaterals with the Scottish and Welsh Governments.

Last month, The Herald reported Government insiders had made clear Mr Green was looking to hold a new JMC in October after the Conservative Party conference.

This week, Lesley Laird, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, demanded the resumption of the JMC and Mr Green’s official confirmation of a meeting in the autumn “to review progress” of the Brexit discussions came in response.

Today, thousands of people are expected to take part in the anti-Brexit People’s March for Europe in central London. Among the speakers will be Sir Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader.

Yesterday at an informal summit of EU foreign ministers in Estonia, Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, insisted under Article 50 Brussels had a legal duty to discuss a future trading relationship with Britain simultaneously as working through the Brexit divorce bill.