David Davis’s wide-ranging hearing with MPs from the Brexit committee yesterday provided new indications of where government policy is heading. Theresa May insists she is not providing a running commentary on her negotiation but the Brexit secretary has provided a few valuable insights into government thinking.

The timing of the government’s Brexit plan. Mr Davis said the proposals would not be published until February at the earliest. He said there are “quite a few decisions still to be made", noting that the government will be guided by 57 industry sector analyses that it has commissioned from civil servants. He did not indicate whether plan would be in the form of a white paper, a green paper or something lighter.

It is no surprise that Mr Davis is leaving publication as late as possible. If the Supreme Court upholds the demand for a Commons vote on the triggering of Article 50, ministers will want to curtail debate. The vote will certainly be passed but ministers do not want to see the bill amended by MPs.

Britain will not negotiate with the EU over immigration. This was the most striking revelation of the day. Many had assumed that, at the heart of the UK-EU talks, would be a simple bargain: the more the UK restricts migration controls on EU citizens, the less Britain could expect privileged access to the single market.

Mr Davis is taking a more ruthless approach. He said UK immigration levels would be set “in the national interest”, they would be subject to “clear control by this parliament” and the precise migration policy that Britain sets would not feature in the talks with the EU.

In some ways, this is no surprise. Mr Davis has long believed that EU states will not want to restrict Britain’s privileged access to the single market because their own manufacturers need to export to the UK. Immigration policy is also something that successive UK governments will want to fine tune regularly after Britain has left the bloc. Even so, the EU’s negotiating position is bound to be influenced by how restrictive Britain’s border controls look set to be.

A transitional deal is a possibility. Mr Davis’s position has shifted. Last month he told banking executives that he was “not really interested” in am interim pact. Now he is prepared to accept one “if necessary”.

Mr Davis’s stance remains more cautious than that of Philip Hammond. The chancellor said this week that all “thoughtful politicians” accept the need for an interim deal. Mr Davis will only back a transitional pact as a way of facilitating a free-trade agreement whose outlines are agreed in principle. “We need to know where we are going before we decide on the transition,” he said.

Even so, the politics regrading a transitional deal have shifted inside cabinet in a direction that will reassure many in the City.

The reversibility of Article 50. The British government has long insisted that Article 50, once triggered, cannot be reversed. It is easy to understand why ministers take this view. Any suggestion that it can be revoked will encourage the EU to play hardball in order to persuade the British to change their minds and reverse the referendum decision.

Mr Davis stuck to this line for the most part: “It’s very difficult seeing it being revoked,” he said. “We don’t intend to revoke it.” But then he added cryptically: “It may not be revocable. I don’t know.”

This may be a subtle indication that the government expects a legal judgment on this issue next year — and one it may not like.