Bell tolls in the Brexit Last Chance Saloon

MPs are not just drinking in the Last Chance saloon over Brexit. They have set fire to it and blocked the exits.

Having frustrated a straightforward ‘yes or no’ parliamentary vote on the Prime Minister’s deal – aided and abetted by departing speaker John Bercow – Remainers now hope to mire it in yet more debate and kill it with amendments demanding a customs union with the EU or a second referendum. The motive is as clear as it is cynical: to frustrate the will of the British people as expressed three years ago. For these diehard Brexit-wreckers, ‘deal’ – of any kind – has become a dirty word.

Polls, including one conducted for this newspaper, display the aching desire of voters to secure a withdrawal agreement and move on. Instead, we are facing the possibility of months more debilitating uncertainty, punctuated by what would be a deeply divisive general election campaign.

And yet, and yet. There is still some bourbon to be drunk. The people who need to down it are Leave-supporting Labour MPs who for too long have weighed loyalty to party against country.

If they can get behind Boris Johnson’s proposed settlement, which does away with the hated backstop and commands the support of EU leaders, it can still be rushed through the Commons and Lords in time to meet the October 31 deadline.

Time is desperately short. And Remain MPs will use every parliamentary device to ensure that it is wasted. But there is hope – if these Labour rebels are prepared to act.

Otherwise, with an election imminent, they face having to explain to their Leavevoting constituents why they threw away the last opportunity to end this nightmare.

After so many supposed high noons, it really is last orders before the Brexit deadline. MPs must summon the courage (Dutch or otherwise) to get the deal Britain craves done.