The rightwing Brexiters have been exposed. They lied. They had no practical solutions. So they resigned. There is very little time left to rescue Britain from the damage they inflicted

Midway through Theresa May’s three-hour Commons grilling by MPs over her Brexit deal on Thursday, the former cabinet minister Stephen Crabb asked a rare sympathetic question about the “cold reality of hard choices and compromise” that now face the government. Mrs May’s reply was frank and even, in its way, eloquent. “The challenge for all of us in this house,” she said, “is to make those choices not according to what we wish the world could be like but according to the reality of the world that we see, and to make those choices pragmatically and in the interests of the British people.”

The history of Brexit is the history of a refusal to face the truths Mrs May expressed in those words. She herself has not always faced them either. That was especially true in her early months as prime minister, when she recklessly embraced a cherry-picking hard Brexit that divided the public, was never going to be negotiable with the EU and would damage the country economically, socially and politically. Gradually, however, and especially since she lost her majority in 2017, Mrs May has found herself compelled to soften, and to make the choices and compromises that now make up the humiliating mongrel deal agreed by officials this week.

The Tory party’s rightwing nationalist Brexiters never accepted this approach, and they never will. For them, Brexit is about parading their infatuation with a phoney ideal, not with the art of the possible. They have never, ever, had a practical proposal to make. Faced with realities, they resign and walk away. Like the grumpy giants Pope and Pagan in The Pilgrim’s Progress, they then scowl in their cave, denouncing others for betraying these wrongheaded and unachievable goals.

Their attempt to unseat Mrs May is entirely of a piece. It is nothing more than the politics of petulance, and it is out of touch with a public mood of anxiety about the Brexit process and no small measure of grudging admiration for Mrs May’s doggedness, which has been reflected in editorial shifts at the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. Even if the Brexiters succeeded in installing a true believer in Mrs May’s place, this successor would be the shortest serving prime minister in British history. The parliamentary numbers would remain unchanged. The Brexiter leader would put forward a fantasy plan that would be voted down. Michael Gove was more sensible by deciding to stay on.

Even now, however, Mrs May’s embrace of Brexit realities is inconsistent. On Wednesday she emerged into Downing Street to say there were only three options available for Britain. The first was to accept her deal with the EU. The second was to reject her deal and crash out of the EU without a deal, while the third was to abandon Brexit altogether. This statement rightly caused excitement among pro-Europeans because it appeared to acknowledge growing public support for a second referendum and the possibility of a vote to remain in the EU after all.

But the statement also masked the reality that other options may still be in play too. Mr Gove and the other surviving leavers believe they can reopen some issues in the May deal, for instance, notably on the backstop. MPs on both sides of the Commons who want Britain to retain membership of the EU single market for the post-Brexit transition are backing a so-called “Norway for now” option, though they have very different views of where it might eventually lead. Both Mr Gove and the new work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, are in this group. It is possible, therefore, that Mrs May is herself guilty of magical thinking about the political options.

If Mrs May succeeds in her immediate task of holding on as Tory leader over the coming days and weeks, the stage is set for a major parliamentary showdown in early December. In those debates, the future of Britain will be at stake. Politics must rise to the occasion. Mrs May will deploy every weapon to get a Commons majority for her deal. MPs must be prepared to show equal determination in resisting it.

If ever there was a moment when MPs should have a free vote and when they should be unflinchingly true to their consciences, this will be it. Parliamentary procedure will be crucial. It is essential, as the Commons procedure committee proposed this week, that there is enough time for debate, essential that all propositions are voted on, and essential that tricks are not used to force issues off the agenda. Right now, Mrs May does not have a majority for her Brexit package in parliament or the country. All options, including a second referendum, are inescapably on the table. The task of rescuing Britain from the Brexiters’ delusions has barely started yet.