Ken Clarke’s speech during the second reading of the article 50 debate was one of the best I’ve heard in 20 years as a member of parliament. Cogent and lucid, it made the case as to why membership of the EU has been good for Britain and why leaving will diminish us on our continent and across the world. It was the case, in effect, that the British people rejected on 23 June.

Ken Clarke was magnificent, defying the Brexit zealots | Polly Toynbee Read more

Keir Starmer, Labour’s shadow Brexit minister, is as committed a European as Ken Clarke, and also made an impressive speech setting out our party’s position at the beginning of the debate. The difference between the two is that while Clarke glossed over the referendum result, Starmer faced up to the fact that it was decisively in favour of leave.

I led Labour’s referendum campaign and nobody was more disappointed than me at the outcome. While it’s true that we convinced 66% of Labour supporters to remain, it wasn’t enough to secure a majority overall.

At no point did I or anybody else on our side of the argument seek to trivialise the decision that each individual would take in the polling booth by suggesting that it was a glorified opinion poll, designed to advise MPs about what decision they should take. Clarke shrugs that off by saying that he’s not a fan of referendums. Neither am I, but it was his party, not mine, that pledged to hold a referendum if it won the 2015 general election. The Conservative government was therefore fully entitled to implement its manifesto.

It would be an outrage for parliament to ignore the referendum result. Clarke can vote against triggering article 50 in full knowledge that he will be in a minority. Were a majority to follow his lead there would be a constitutional crisis, a further and catastrophic diminution of trust in our democracy, and an early general election which would not go well for Labour.

But Clarke’s speech should bolster us pro-Europeans. Our views haven’t changed because we lost the vote and the referendum is the start of a process, not the end. This is a long game and we must strive to reach the closest possible relationship with our European partners.

The idea that a free trade deal, even with a non-protectionist US (UK exports £45bn), would be more beneficial than our trade deal with the EU (UK exports £220bn), is nonsense. The reality is that we will spend much time and money trying to maintain the excellent trading relationships we have now with the biggest commercial market in the world.

The detail of the coming article 50 negotiations will be crucial

The detail of the coming article 50 negotiations will be crucial and there is sufficient cross-party determination to ensure that there is close parliamentary scrutiny, regardless of whether Labour’s amendments to that effect are carried or not.

There is no doubt in my mind that the point at which the referendum campaign turned towards leave was the publication of the net migration statistics by the Office for National Statistics at the end of May. This produced a record net figure of 333,000 – higher than at any period in our history, including after the accession countries joined in 2004.

Remain’s leading advocate was a prime minister who had foolishly pledged to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. After six years in office his failure was writ large and his fate was sealed. Our friends in Europe have to realise that the EU’s transformation from six countries in 1958 to 28 in 2017 and the reinterpretation from free movement to take up job opportunities in the 1950s to free movement per se, is the biggest single cause of tension and disillusionment among working people throughout the community.

The points-based immigration system that I presided over as home secretary insisted that a job vacancy had to be advertised in the local jobcentre and remain unfilled before any worker could be brought from outside the EU to fill that vacancy. It was part of a controlled immigration policy that proceeded by consent. If that requirement was part of an EU-wide policy, together with measures to exchange information effectively in order to keep out undesirables as already allowed for in EU regulations, it would transform the attitude of working people towards the European Union and remove Ukip’s biggest recruitment tool at a stroke.

I voted to trigger article 50 not because the majority of my constituents voted to leave. Much though I respect that decision, I am not a delegate and this is a national not local issue. Having been given the opportunity to vote by the courage and determination of Gina Miller, I will use it to start out on a new road that I hope can end at a destination where Britain remains influential and fully engaged with the affairs of its continent. Refusing to embark on the journey is not an option.