A cliff edge approaches, and the Tories – whooping like Dr Strangelove’s Major Kong as he rides the bomb – seem intent on driving us ever closer. Promises of a thriving post-Brexit Britain have been replaced with reassurances that there will be “adequate” food, that stockpiling is taking place, and the army will be on standby. Funny how these never made it to the side of a bus, isn’t it? Britain has been reduced to a man with a gun to his own head screeching: “Do as I say or I’ll shoot,” and the Conservatives are, of course, almost entirely to blame. But they have been aided and abetted by four Labour MPs, and a political reckoning must surely now take place.

Two weeks ago, the government was on the brink of defeat over its plan for customs arrangements with the European Union. If it had lost, so Tory rebels were briefed, a confidence vote and a general election could have followed. Yes, these threats were partly a means to terrify Conservative MPs into submission, but there is no question that a loss on an issue of such magnitude would have posed an existential threat to the government. Ultimately Theresa May was saved in part by the aforementioned MPs – Kate Hoey, Graham Stringer, John Mann and Frank Field. Had they voted the other way, the Tories would have lost. Their rescue of Britain’s most disastrous postwar administration leaves the country galloping at full pelt towards a grave crisis.

Yes, the founding members of the Social Democratic ​party left when it was clear that deselection beckoned

Understandably, the local parties of these MPs have recoiled in horror. Hoey’s Vauxhall voted unanimously for the whip to be removed; Field’s Birkenhead party overwhelmingly backed a no-confidence motion in him. Vauxhall Labour is no den of Corbynism, having nominated the New Labour candidate Liz Kendall in the 2015 leadership election and Owen Smith a year later. Self-professed Blairites, soft lefties and Corbynites were united in this vote. In short, local party members do not want Field or Hoey to be their candidates. And it should be easier for members to remove them accordingly in favour of people who would not prop up a Tory government that is leading Britain to calamity.

Some caveats here. The rebel MPs have protested that they voted according to their beliefs: unquestionably, that’s true. Also, the Labour leadership should not set an authoritarian precedent by imposing sanctions on rebellious MPs. Jeremy Corbyn’s own defiance of the whip is relentlessly brought up by his critics, of course.

The objection should not be whether Labour MPs defy the whip – each should have the right to act according to their conscience. But Labour members should surely have greater power to decide whether those actions defy the values that bind the party. While Corbyn, for example, consistently voted for New Labour’s progressive policies (the minimum wage, LGBTQ rights, Sure Start), he defied the whip on issues that accorded with Labour members’ views (opposing the Iraq war, privatisation and attacks on civil liberties). It was mounting frustration over these betrayals that culminated in Corbyn’s elevation to the leadership, after all. Labour members should have the power to adjudicate on MPs’ voting records, and “not propping up a catastrophic Tory government” should be regarded as a bare minimum.

Birkenhead MP Frank Field. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Let the electorate decide, comes the inevitable response: MPs are not party delegates, but representatives of their constituents, and didn’t Hoey’s majority go up by more than 4,000 votes only last year? According to YouGov, just 6% of Labour supporters voted in the general election on the basis of who their local candidate was. That’s how one of Britain’s most ardent Brexiteers increased her majority in one of Britain’s most pro-remain constituencies. Many Labour voters were therefore trapped: desperate for a Labour government and knowing that voting for a Labour candidate was the only means to achieve it, while repelled by her hard Brexit ideology.

Strengthening the power of Labour members to reselect candidates will inevitably cause panic on the party’s right. They perceive a clever ruse: Hoey is opposed by all the party’s tribes, so the left can use this to cement deselection as a tactic that can then be turned on others. However senior Momentum figures privately concede, very few MPs would be deselected if members’ powers were increased. Since the election, leftwing candidates have won 70% of parliamentary selections where an incumbent was not standing. But those candidates who did stand in the last election, regardless of their politics, have been overwhelmingly reselected – the same would undoubtedly apply to sitting MPs, too.

Calls for the deselection of the Brexit “Gang of Four” come at a tense moment. The plot for a breakaway party is supported by a relatively small minority of Labour MPs, but it is a real possibility: the infrastructure and funding is there, and those involved are seeking the right moment and issue on which to depart before forming a new neoliberal party, wedded to the failed policies of the past, and one that would achieve nothing except help keep the Tories in office. And yes, the founding members of the Social Democratic party left when it was clear that deselection beckoned. But this is an issue that goes beyond the struggle of left and right for Labour’s soul.

If Labour MPs can rescue a Tory government dragging Britain into chaos, and lose the confidence of their own local members, they should not remain as candidates. Perhaps, even in these febrile times, this is one issue on which Labour can unite.

• Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist