SO, the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal was voted down. It wasn’t just voted down by a few rebel MPs on the Government benches, it was a rejected by an unprecedented and historic margin of 230 votes. At 202 votes for to 432 votes against, many thought the Prime Minister would resign, as history has shown Prime Ministers have stood down following much smaller defeats.

However, Theresa May stood up and told Parliament, and indeed the wider public who were watching closely, that she intended to meet with opposition party leaders to find out from them directly what it would take to get her deal through.

I did wonder why she hadn’t bothered doing so until 70 or so days before we are due to leave the EU but, nonetheless, it is welcome to have the Prime Minister finally show at least some willingness to listen.

Perplexingly Jeremy Corbyn refused to meet with the Prime Minister. I understand the Labour leader wants no-deal taken off the table. I want the same thing. But I would have thought telling the Prime Minister this directly, and explaining the reasons, would have been more effective than using the pantomime of the House of Commons Chamber to do it.

READ MORE: Mhairi Black: May & Corbyn united in commitment to cowardice

But I suppose it doesn’t matter anyway; the Prime Minister is never going to take no-deal off the table for fear of her hard-Brexiteer backbenchers in the European Research Group.

We had a no confidence debate in the government, and the same Tory backbenchers who voted against the PM’s deal voted to keep her in office. Because, well … I actually have no idea why.

It couldn’t possibly be that these hard Brexiteers are concerned about the safety of their seats. After all, they’ve been popping up on every single news channel to tell us that a WTO rules, hard Brexit is exactly what the voters wanted. Very perplexing, not at all transparent…

So, following this mess, we waited to find out what the result of the Prime Minister’s talks would be. With bated breath we waited to hear what the elusive Plan B is. Monday came around and the Prime Minister stood at the Dispatch Box to tell us: Plan B is Plan A, but definitely different. Except it’s not. Plan B is to go to the EU and again ask for concessions on the backstop.

Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but didn’t the Prime Minister spend the whole of December and the first half of January telling us that the EU would not negotiate any further? I could swear we were told that the deal on the table was the only deal available, and the EU would never offer anything better. And the funny thing is, I am certain this is the one thing that the Prime Minister has been honest about.

I will be shocked if any meaningful concessions are offered by the EU, and I’ll be even more shocked if any of these concessions are able to get the support of a majority of MPs.

The Prime Minister has to know this. So, it begs the question: what is she up to? The answer most people believe, as I do myself, is that she is simply running down the clock until a hard Brexit happens by default. It shouldn’t be understated how dangerous and disruptive this would be.

READ MORE: Mhairi Black: The Prime Minister misleads us on Brexit every single time

There were reports this week that companies are running out of room to store products that they are stockpiling. To add more curiosity to the whole thing the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond MP, this week stated he wouldn’t rule out resigning over a no-deal Brexit. It’s not unusual to see infighting in the Tory Party, but it is definitely notable that the Chancellor is making this threat.

For a long time now, it has been plain to me that the only way out of this mess is to take the question back to the public with a People’s Vote. I support a General Election because this government is a travesty, but I do wonder what the result of any election would be when it comes to Brexit. The Tories and Labour both have no real Brexit policy, and certainly don’t have one that will command the support of all of their MPs and candidates.

If the Tory manifesto commits to the Prime Minister’s deal, the members of the ERG are going to say they’re not standing on it. If the Labour manifesto calls for a vague “jobs first” Brexit, many of their current MPs and candidates are going to say they’re not committing to that because they want a People’s Vote.

One of those two parties will form a government and then we will once again be in the position where we have a government that can’t command a majority of their MPs when they eventually pick a direction.

Of course, the choice for Scotland is a bit plainer. The lifeboat of independence has never looked more attractive. It’s time we all get on it.