The referendum puts a weapon in the hands of the people. Politicians cannot predict how it will be used, nor control the outcome. The constitutional and political repercussions of the EU referendum will be profound, the outcome of a grassroots insurgency. The people have delivered an instruction which the Government and Parliament will have to obey.

The Brexiteers wanted to re-establish the sovereignty of Parliament. But Parliament will now be constrained, not by Brussels, but by the British people. Parliament will be required to sustain a policy to which most MPs are opposed, an event without precedent in its long history.