Parliament is about to lie to those who elected it two years ago. It is about to pretend that there is a better way of leaving the EU than is outlined in Theresa May’s deal. It knows there is not. If it votes down May’s deal, it will lie.
The deal is not a settlement but a transition. It is a way of moving forward, of leaving the EU pending negotiation of a long-term trading relationship. It is not a compromise but in reality a defeat for the “having our cake and eating it” school of Brexit fantasists. But it is the only deal on offer. All else is a Westminster miasma of personal ambition, party advantage and endemic hysteria. MPs are charged with governing the country well. Never in my experience have they shown less interest in that cause.
Last week a still small voice spoke through the gloom. It was of a backbench MP, George Freeman, speaking of his evident despair over Brexit, but of the obligation on an MP to “cross the party divide and embrace the lost art of compromise”. The responsible next step was to leave as pledged by parliament in March, and move on to negotiate a future outside the EU. To vote against the deal was merely to shut one’s eyes and hope someone else gets the blame for the chaos.
Fresh hope has been given to the stallers with a “coup” plan from three moderate Tories, Nicky Morgan, Oliver Letwin and Nick Boles. Assuming May’s plan fails on Tuesday – and they will be voting against her deal – they want a three-week delay, another vote and then the chairs of parliament’s committees to decide what to do next. This might mean another referendum, which is just a can-kicking exercise, or renegotiation on a single market or customs union terms. It would almost certainly mean postponing EU departure. Tuesday’s opportunity to move forward would be lost.
The parliamentary coup is a desperate stagger through a quagmire. It further excuses MPs from confronting reality and sustains their mendacity. The leavers want a hard Brexit, on the pretence that the referendum was a vote for tariffs, hard borders and passport controls. All poll evidence says it was not. Remainers cling to the pretence that the referendum was not sensible and, by some device, can be reversed. It cannot.
The polarising tendency of modern politics, the aversion to responsibility, compromise and common sense has never been so glaring. MPs should vote for the deal and do what they were elected to do, which is govern the country. If not, they will present the country with a profession in disarray.
• Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
