I have been advocating prorogation since February, as the obvious way out of a situation in which the sovereign will of the people is being thwarted by the non-sovereign will of MPs. When you prorogue parliament – as I believe you will ultimately have to given the alternatives - you will be likened to King Charles I, although he did it for 11 years whereas you will hopefully only need to do it for a few weeks. Parliament is prorogued three times a year for Recess anyhow; this one will simply be for a month or so longer.

It is in fact the profoundly democratic thing to do, overriding a parliament that has spent three years refusing to deliver the real Brexit for which the British people voted. The reason our constitution is unwritten is to provide the Government with opportunities in precisely these kind of circumstances.

You will also be accused of having no national mandate. Yet as John Brooke pointed out in his biography of King George III, ‘All successful war ministers – Chatham in 1757, Palmerston in 1855, Lloyd George in 1916, Churchill in 1940 – have been thrust on the Commons by backstairs intrigue.’ Your mandate will be by the majority of Tory MPs and a majority of the wider party, a far better one than any of those four great leaders. Although this is of course not wartime, Brexit is by far the greatest peacetime crisis this country has faced since the Falklands, arguably even Suez.