Brexit has become a divisive and corrosive experience. One personally frustrating aspect of the last few months has been people accusing me of shifting my position to become a ‘rebel’ or a ‘traitor’.

I find this odd. I have been a Conservative Party activist for 35 years and my core beliefs about the EU have not changed. I always felt the EU needed institutional reform and that the UK should focus on the economic benefits it can bring. I supported Margaret Thatcher ’s creation of the Single Market and I said no to the Euro. I still hold these views, and because of them I was once called a Eurosceptic. Now I am apparently a Europhile.

I accept we are leaving the EU, but despite the rewriting of history, the referendum gave no instruction as to how to leave. I believe the nation state is the basis for democracy, security and prosperity, and we choose to make economic and security alliances to further our interests. The plan for Brexit agreed at Chequers is a continuation of that tradition.

Some Bexiteers suggest that the EU should roll over and give the UK a good deal. It won’t. We expect the EU to negotiate in good faith and aim for mutual benefits, but a failure of negotiation is often two-sided. It has taken the UK 15 months to deliver a negotiating position. What on earth has DExEU been up to? Why has there been no progress?

The White Paper proposes a frictionless free trade area for goods. The most controversial aspect of the plan, the “common rule book”, is actually its strongest. It sheds the most contentious aspects of EU membership — justice and home affairs, the common foreign policy — and returns the relationship to a purely economic one, based on the principles of Thatcher’s Common Market.

My friend Boris Johnson was right last week when he said it is not too late to save Brexit. But I suspect he and I view success differently. The White Paper is a step in the right direction. It is not perfect, and as a London MP I have concerns about our world-leading services sector having continued access to EU markets.

However, I am clear that the Chequers plan is the basis for a successful exit from the EU. But it has already been undermined. This makes the catastrophe of no deal more likely. No responsible PM can allow the UK to suffer the recession that would surely follow. So if the Chequers deal fails, I believe joining the European Free Trade Association and staying in the European Economic Area will be the only conservative solution. It would protect the economy, jobs and businesses. This must be our priority.

There is no majority in the Commons for a hard Brexit , but there are majorities for joining the EFTA and having a frictionless customs arrangement. Last week I proposed an amendment designed to make sure we had a plan should the Chequers deal fail and to stop a no-deal Brexit. It didn’t pass. But as MPs head away from Westminster this summer we should remember that when it returns Parliament will not allow a Hard Brexit.