We have to leave the EU on March 29. It’s the law

Despite the turbulence of this week’s votes, the law remains that the UK will leave the EU at 11pm on March 29. The Remainer plots – supported on some votes by certain unruly ministers – to seize control of the parliamentary timetable or force a second referendum were all defeated.

But the Commons did resolve that a short extension to June 30, 2019, be sought on condition that “the House has passed a resolution approving the negotiated Withdrawal Agreement”. The Prime Minister will, therefore, present her deal to the Commons again. Without substantial changes, I will vote against and cannot see how the House will change its mind. The

Withdrawal Agreement is riven with problems but objections have focused on the backstop. By creating a new political entity, “UK(NI)”, the backstop abandons the Government’s commitment to the constitutional status of Northern Ireland in clear breach of the Belfast Agreement’s Principle of Consent and the requirement to consult the NI Assembly.

Compounding this, the UK would have no unilateral right of exit, so could be locked in indefinitely with laws imposed on us without a say by 27 other countries. For all the Government’s efforts, this appalling fate is still in the agreement and “the legal risk remains unchanged”. The agreement will, therefore, remain unacceptable to the Commons. It simply is not Brexit. That takes the short extension proposed by Thursday’s vote off the table.

We then need to ask what a longer extension would be for. The House has rejected the ludicrous notion of a second referendum, so no clear purpose is apparent. In any case, neither main party can seriously contemplate the political damage a delay would cause. Any extension beyond May 23 will require a European election, at which the Conservative Party would be slaughtered.

We are therefore left with no deal as the Malthouse Plan B sets out. This need be nothing to fear. No deal is not an end state. WTO rules could even allow us to maintain our current zero-tariff, zero-quantitative restrictions arrangements while the new deal was being negotiated.

Such arrangements are the only way of delivering Brexit on time and in full.

We’d leave on March 29 – as the law requires – honouring the votes of 17.4 million people and fulfilling Labour and Tory manifesto pledges. Brexit will not go away and the future of parliamentary democracy relies on MPS having the integrity to deliver on the largest democratic exercise in our history.

Owen Paterson is a Tory former Cabinet minister