Norway is known for its fjords and mountains, its coastline and the mystical northern lights. It is a fitting backdrop then for the Brexit saga’s latest myth, which centres around the Scandinavian country’s close but separate relations with the EU – an idea for a new deal being marketed as Norway Plus.

With gleaming public services funded by vast oil wealth and some of the highest taxation in the world, an economic philosophy of state-owned capital, rather than market liberalism, and 70% of workers signed up to union contracts, it is understandable that some in the Labour party are starting to see Norway as a silver bullet for the unfolding Brexit chaos. But by mimicking Norway’s EU relations, we will not magically gain our own $1tn sovereign wealth fund. It is far too late for that – Margaret Thatcher squandered our North Sea oil in exchange for tax cuts in the 1980s.

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Norway’s EU deal is not something we can simply copy and paste. Joining the European Free Trade Association (Efta) bloc would require the approval of all four Efta members: Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Senior Norwegian politicians and business figures could not have been clearer in rejecting the idea as “neither in Norway’s nor the UK’s interest”.

Even if we could negotiate our way into Efta, we would not want to. A Norway-style deal with the EU is a lose-lose compromise that means giving up our existing democratic influence in the European parliament, the commission and the council for nothing in return. Breaking almost every single promise made by the Leave campaign, we would continue abiding by EU rules and regulations, including free movement, paying large budget contributions, and we would have no formal oversight of new laws handed down by the European Court of Justice via the Efta court.

Instead of continuing to lead in the European institutions we helped to build, we would become entirely subservient to new rules created solely in the interests of the remaining 27 member states. Our only influence will come through a network of professional lobbyists whose job it will be to take European politicians out for lunch. These people will not be representatives of the unemployed in seaside towns or the former industrial workers who voted for Brexit, but Oxbridge graduates working for multinational corporations to chip away at social protections and workers’ rights. This may work fine for Norway, as a small nation with generally good salaries for all workers, but for Britain, Europe’s second largest but highly unequal economy, it would be a humiliation that works against the interests of those the Brexit project claims to represent.

Norway Plus is a false compromise. It wrongly assumes that the right answer to the Brexit problem must be found somewhere between two opposite poles. When one person tells you that grass is green and another tells you it is red, you would be foolish to conclude that grass is actually brown. Similarly, when half of the country concludes that Brexit is good and the other half concludes it is bad, the answer is not to take the worst elements of both in a fudge compromise. This kind of muddled thinking would be a historic mistake. Instead of upsetting only Remainers or only Leavers, we would disillusion them both.

Most importantly, this new Viking takeover is a fundamentally dishonest solution to what happened in 2016. It gives the pretence of respecting the vote but, in reality, it is an establishment stitch-up made in the backrooms of Westminster that would honour exactly zero of the promises made by the Leave campaign. It is better to confront the issues raised by Brexit voters and show them the respect of honest disagreement than to give them this Judas kiss.

Norway Plus may feel good to voters at first, but they will soon see it as betrayal. Better to argue that free movement has been a force for good, that we find strength in pooling our sovereignty and that our problems result from national failure, than to build up resentment by taking this easy way out.

As it stands, a Norway-style Brexit has no mandate. Whether you are a Leaver or a Remainer, you did not votefor the government to impose a settlement that means obeying all the rules and regulations of the EU, with no democratic influence over how they are made. If, over the coming weeks, parliamentary arithmetic means that Norway Plus looks like the most likely means of achieving consensus, it could only be done democratically if it gets ratification in a people’s vote.

David Lammy has been Labour MP for Tottenham since 2000