Darling: I am more worried than I was in 2008 crisis

SO what do we do now? Where do we go? The only thing that is clear is that a majority of people in the UK decided that we have to leave the European Union. The choice has been made. We must accept it.

That’s the easy bit. Deciding what to do next is much harder. There is no point in asking the Brexit campaigners. For four months they quite deliberately concealed the difficult choices we now face.

Theirs was a campaign based on fear-mongering, and in some cases downright lies. Over the past two days they have looked as bemused at victory as everyone else. But they made promises – on immigration, on a massive increase in funding for the NHS, and just about everything else – from which I guess they will now try to run away.

On top of all that, the UK now has no effective Government until October. David Cameron has resigned, as he was bound to, and there is no one in charge. If the new leader calls a General Election, which he or she may well have to do to get a mandate to negotiate out of the EU, there could well be even more uncertainty and instability.

Be in no doubt – we will pay for it. I am more worried than I was at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.

So we have a divided country. Roughly half wanting in, the other half out. Scotland and London overwhelmingly in. The gap between Londoners and the rest of England is immense. Successive governments have never faced up to this growing reality.

Things were said in the referendum that have left deep wounds which may never heal. In Scotland, the scars remain from the vote on independence. They could well reopen as the Nationalists seize another chance, only two years after a decisive rejection of separation. And of course, as we chart our future course, we do so with massive uncertainty as to the economic background we face. Friday’s collapse of the pound was as predictable as the drop in share prices.

Over the next few weeks I believe we will see many firms simply taking stock. Very few will take precipitate decisions. But businesses based in the UK who sell into the EU market will consider where to go in future.

So what do we do? We cannot invoke the formal process of separation from Europe until we have a new Prime Minister. But we must begin thinking about our options. This cannot be something for the Tory Party alone – its splits have caused enough damage to the rest of us already.

On trade, we need to decide what agreement we now want with Europe. The status quo is not on offer. The question is, how much are we willing to surrender to get a good trade deal? Norway has access to the single market but it has to accept the free movement of people, which the Brexiteers claim to be out of the question. At the other extreme, we could unilaterally abandon tariffs, as some Brexiteers suggest, despite it almost certainly wiping out much of our manufacturing industry.

The concerns about immigration, which the Brexiteers ruthlessly preyed on, have to be considered as a priority. What happens to the three million EU nationals now in the UK? And what would happen to the two million British citizens living and working in Europe?

THEN there is the nightmare of trying to disentangle the UK from EU law. You cannot just repeal the 1972 Act which joined us to the then Common Market. Most of our laws are influenced by EU laws.

There is a whole host of legislation covering the environment, medicine and workers’ rights which are completely intermeshed with Europe. If we repeal the whole lot in one go, no one will have any idea what the law is. If we keep them all, why bother leaving in the first place?

There is another important point. To remove the European provisions from the Scotland Act, for example, would need the consent of the Scottish parliament. Which it would refuse point blank.

Yet I do not believe that a majority of people in Scotland would vote for independence, even now. The unanswered questions remain. Suppose Scotland was to join the EU as an independent country. All new entrants have to join the euro.

If Miss Sturgeon is indeed phoning around the remaining 27 member states, she is duty bound to tell us what the price of joining would be.

The low oil price means that Scotland’s financial position would be dire, which is why I believe that Miss Sturgeon is feeling more cautious than she seems. She is in no hurry to hold a second independence referendum either, and risk leading her party to a second failure.

As for Labour, it is blindingly obvious that we have lost connection and support. I did not vote for Jeremy Corbyn but accepted his mandate and was prepared to give him time to show what he could do. It is clear now that his heart is not in this.

It is time for Mr Corbyn to stand aside. The Labour Party, and the country, needs a proper choice of government at the next election – which may be just around the corner.