The public will not stand by meekly as MPs continue to block Brexit

We came so close. Brexit day, it seemed, was finally going to arrive. But just when it began to feel real, MPs found another ruse to prolong the nation’s agony and postpone, yet again, their own reckoning with reality.

People are crying out for a resolution. They are so bored with Brexit that they want to bury it and clap a pillow over their heads. But like a mosquito that won’t go away, it keeps buzzing at our ears.

Hamstrung at every turn, the Prime Minister has none the less done his best to hand Parliament the requisite swatter. Even as MPs were finally poised to pick it up and, with a mighty thwack, release us from this purgatory, Sir Oliver Letwin knocked it from their hands.

“I don’t need to detain the House for long,” he said reverentially, as he put forward his amendment. No, not the House. But the country? He is perfectly happy to detain us for months.

Getting a deal through a hung Parliament in time was always going to be a delicate operation. MPs who have prattled on for so long about their respect for the referendum always seem to find some reason or other not to respect it with their votes.

Mrs May brought back a compromise deal that kept us close to the EU. Pro-Brussels MPs denounced it: on the one hand for locking us in with no exit; and on the other for failing to lock us in with enough certainty.

Next, they threatened to collapse Boris Johnson’s Government. He offered them an election to do just that. Instead, they passed laws ordering him to get a deal. So he did as he was told: he compromised and struck a deal. Surely, we thought, they’ve run out of excuses. Closure is in sight; we can see, dimly, the moment when we heal the rift between the country and its distant institutions. Forward steps Sir Oliver, bushy brows furrowed, quizzical finger raised, with a fail-safe, cunning plan.

The rebels claimed yesterday that they were merely seeking to ensure the Withdrawal Bill gets enough scrutiny by the deadline. If this were so, Parliament would no doubt willingly clear the calendar to debate the 500-page Bill. Yet no sooner had the Government informed the House of its desire to get straight back to Brexit business tomorrow, than MPs began popping up to condemn this “most discourteous” disruption to their plans. MPs had been so “looking forward to giving their speeches”, cried one. It was essential, they declared, to debate the Queen’s Speech, which they had derided as a pointless charade just days ago.

Government ministers required phalanxes of police protection simply to leave the building.

MPs who voted for this delay seem to think that the world will wait patiently while Britain ponders its options. They seem to think the country will politely stand by as they try out every plot and ploy to undo the referendum result and discredit the Prime Minister.

It might now be too late to get this thing through both Parliament and the EU’s institutions before Hallowe’en. But if MPs think they have done anything to strengthen their case for reversal and delay, they are going to get a fright.

‘They think the country will politely stand by as they try out every plot and ploy to undo the referendum result’