Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, pictured, explains why he has changed his mind on Theresa May's Brexit deal and will support it in Commons

Lions led by donkeys: nearly three years after the British people voted to take back control of our democracy, it is painfully obvious that the political class at Westminster doesn’t share the belief in our country that is shown by the people.

All too often it has looked as if the Establishment has wanted to negotiate a Brexit that looks shockingly like not leaving at all, even though the European Union has made it clear that a deep and open free trade agreement is there for the asking.

This is why the Prime Minister’s EU Withdrawal Agreement came so close to sinking back in January.

The agreement has some good points: it gives certainty to EU citizens in the United Kingdom and ours living on the continent; it tells businesses that contracts will continue to be honoured, and it gives a transition period during which a future free trade agreement could be negotiated.

But the agreement also contains a monumental bear trap.

The protocol that sets out to give reassurance that the Irish border would remain entirely open would have two damaging effects.

First, the so-called backstop would treat Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the United Kingdom, something that is anathema to anyone who believes in the Union; and second, it would carry the risk of trapping the whole of the UK in the EU customs union and therefore banned from making free trade deals with the faster-growing markets around the world.

This is not a time to make the best the enemy of the good, and most MPs are in a mood to compromise, but the danger of this backstop becoming permanent is a real one and it has to be tackled.

That is why I couldn’t vote for the agreement in its original form but also why I proposed an amendment at the end of January that showed the way to reach an acceptable compromise by seeking a legally binding guarantee that the Irish backstop could only be temporary.

My amendment won a majority in the House of Commons and proved wrong the doom-mongers who like to claim that there is no Brexit agreement that can possibly win the backing of Parliament.

Mr Brady is optimistic there is the possibility of compromise across Europe to accept parliament's position on the Irish backstop allowing Britain to leave the EU on March 29

In the month since my amendment was passed, there has been constant shuttle diplomacy – the Prime Minister, Brexit Secretary and Attorney General have been locked in daily discussions to find the binding guarantee that is needed.

Increasingly, the leaders of other EU countries have urged that a pragmatic solution should be found.

My conversations with senior diplomats and politicians from across Europe have given me cause for optimism that a breakthrough is near. Those who have pressed for delay or for No Deal to be taken off the table have weakened Theresa May’s hand and made a deal less likely, but I still believe a compromise is fundamentally in our interest and that of the EU.

We know what is needed to shift the log-jam. The Attorney General needs to give a legally binding guarantee that the backstop is temporary.

Once we have that, my colleagues in Parliament need to recognise the strength of feeling.

The whole country is tired of vacillation and delay.

When the right compromise is offered, we should pull together behind the Prime Minister and help her to deliver our exit from the European Union on March 29.