It is hard to overstate the danger to Britain’s democracy if the popular verdict is overturned by a left-liberal backstairs putsch in Whitehall and Westminster.

THERE seem to be very few people in politics at the moment who are worrying about Britain and its people. Jockeying ambition, personal spite, or simple fear of explaining the need for compromise to angry voters are major concerns in and around Westminster. But the prosperity and peace of these islands are not.

Loud, angry and resentful voices win applause and praise, and are given great prominence. Irresponsible posing, by people who have no solutions of their own but deride the attempts of others, is the quickest route to the TV studio. But those whose main concern is the political and economic well-being and stability of the country, who seek to honour the wishes of the voters, who grasp the size and depth of the difficulty we face, are at best ignored and at worst mocked.

Now, a new danger threatens. At home and abroad, cynical and unscrupulous politicians are hoping to defeat the settled will of the British electorate by engineering a second referendum.

Tony Blair, who spent much of his premiership trying to subject this country to ever-deeper rule from Brussels and Frankfurt, now openly encourages his Eurocrat friends to undermine the Prime Minister, jeering that she is banging her head against a brick wall.

If she is doing so, it is a brick wall he and his Europhile allies helped to build, by systematically seeking to delay and obstruct our departure from the EU which was clearly demanded by an enormous popular vote.

It is close to being sinister that British opponents of our national independence are working, more or less in concert, with the masters of the European project. As British Remainers weaken the Prime Minister at home, the apparatchiks at EU headquarters take advantage of this to refuse concessions which might help her, and to sneer at her that she cannot deliver an agreement.

This double ambush, from before and behind, even if it is unplanned and unco-ordinated, is bound to narrow Mrs May’s options and undermine her position in her Government and her party. It is surely immoral, if not worse, for political figures to involve themselves in campaigns which benefit rival foreign powers at this country’s expense. Political rivalry is supposed to stop at the shoreline.

Mr Blair’s era in office is now generally seen as a disgrace and a failure. His time in supposed retirement is even worse. He would be wiser to spend more time with his money, in quiet contemplation of the mess he left behind him at home and abroad.

And now a threat is emerging that part of the Labour Party, which has long avoided battle on this subject because of its own severe divisions, is considering a frontal attack on Mrs May in the last few days before Parliament breaks up for Christmas. In this underhand attack, it hopes to win the support or at least the abstention of significant numbers of Tory Remainers.

The threat is that they will succeed in getting up serious momentum for a second referendum, a policy which Mrs May has quite rightly ruled out and pledged to prevent.

The Mail on Sunday shares her hostility to such a move, wrongly touted as an easy way out.

Far from it. The act of calling such a vote would infuriate millions who thought they had already delivered their verdict. It would endanger democracy itself, in two ways. First, it would indicate that a majority is not in fact decisive.

Well, in that case, what is the basis on which our parliamentary system functions?

Every MP is elected by a majority. Every Prime Minister is sustained by a majority in Parliament, every new law must be passed by a majority.

The devolved Welsh government exists only thanks to a referendum in which the majority was 50.3 per cent to 49.7 per cent – only just a majority, but still, a majority.

If a majority is not decisive, then what is? We simply cannot have one rule when it goes the elite’s way, and another rule when the people speak.

The damage such behaviour would do to our civil society and constitution would be irreparable.

In any case, which questions would such a second referendum ask? Who would decide them? And why would its verdict be any more decisive than the outcome of the first? Even if there was somehow a vote to Remain, it would be oneall. In which case would there be voices raised for a third vote?

Those at high levels in the Tory Party, and among Mrs May’s advisers, who are now speaking of a second vote should very quickly think better of it.

This country is extraordinarily stable compared with many of its continental neighbours, precisely because its contests have always been contained within Parliament and limited by basic rules of tolerance and compromise. This stability will not last if all-or-nothing fanaticism takes hold.

It is hard to overstate the danger to our democracy if the popular verdict is overturned by a left-liberal backstairs putsch in Westminster and Whitehall.

The Mail on Sunday has repeatedly urged MPs, especially those in senior positions, to pull back from zealotry and embrace responsibility. This is now even more important. If defecting Tories back the second referendum in serious numbers, the Government itself would be in danger, with all the frightening consequences that involves.

The bitter paradox is that this danger is largely thanks to prominent Brexiteers such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and David Davis. It is their intransigence over Mrs May’s deal that has left her vulnerable both to Brussels pressure and to the disloyal plotting of the Remainers.

By refusing to agree to a compromise – while offering no workable alternative of their own – they are in danger of achieving the exact opposite of what they claim to want. The longer that Leavers continue to demand all or nothing, the more likely it is that they will get nothing.

The full organised force of the Remainer camp has always been formidable. They dominate in both Houses of Parliament, the civil service, the universities, the diplomatic service, the media, especially the BBC, and in the courts.

Amazed and sent reeling by the referendum result, many of them have until recently grudgingly accepted defeat. But they now see their chance in Mrs May’s weakness. And they may well take it.

It is quite clear that many of the ultra-militant Leavers are no longer really in touch with the real world. Mr Rees-Mogg’s ridiculous reaction to the clear survival of the premier in a confidence vote – to call on her to quit – revealed a man hopelessly lost in his own illusions, pitifully unaware of his own true weakness

Such illusions are deeply dangerous. Battles can be won only by people who have a clear idea of the ground on which they are fought, of the balance of forces and of their own strength.

The irresponsible fantasies of these Brexit ultra-militants could snatch total defeat from the jaws of reasonable compromise. It has never been more important to embrace calm common sense.

We can’t have one rule when it goes the elite’s way, and another when the people speak