THE attempt and then failure by David Cameron and other Tories to outfox UKIP and right wing Tory MPs has badly backfired, putting Britain’s future at great risk. Yet he and his responsible colleagues will not be around to sort out the mess they created.

The Referendum was close but clear, whatever one’s reservations about the adequacy and accuracy of much of the information provided by both sides, on the basis of which people voted.

However, the referendum is not constitutionally binding and Brexit is so complex and important that a rushed decision to request formally [under Article 50] for the UK to leave the EU should not be taken until the outline and some of the detail of the likely post-exit agreement with the EU is much clearer.

Once the situation is clarified, I would advocate an extended parliamentary debate, on a government motion, one way or the other, with the subsequent successful motion put to the British electorate in a one-subject general election, the result of which would be constitutionally binding.

That process will take a year or more.

For now, with deep reservations, yet goodwill all around the chamber, parliament should meet at once to debate and vote on a motion allowing government to invoke Article 50 only after much more accurate and neutrally-presented information as to the likely cost and extended complexity of Brexit, with Downing Street’s considered recommendation – to be confirmed [or not] in the subsequent general election.

The delay of a year, at least, is justified by the gravity of the decision, and would reassure our EU colleagues that early indications, by them, of more substantive concessions – on the issues important to Britain – might persuade voters, with better information, to rethink Brexit.

The delay might also persuade more young people to register and vote – it is their future that we are deciding, after all .

The current crisis in the currency, property and bond markets is an early indication of more substantive turbulence to come, and how badly Britain could fare if we leave the EU without rather more information as to the implications.

MIKE GOTCH
First Turn, Oxford