There is now no time left. We need to level with the public about what the Brexit options on the table mean for them. To do anything less is a dereliction of our duty as public servants.

It is now abundantly clear that the Government has one risky strategy to deliver Brexit: use distraction and displacement activity to run down the clock — and ram through a deal by threatening MPs with the unconscionable choice of backing the Prime Minister — or a disorderly exit from the EU. This is not the stuff of statecraft.

We MPs owe it to our constituents to be clear-eyed about what backing Theresa May’s deal means for them. It will bring neither certainty, clarity or closure to the issue of our future relationship with Europe — which is the very problem the EU referendum was called to resolve. So it will not heal the divisions of Brexit. The Government would like the public to believe the only hurdle to the ideal Brexit deal is the Northern Ireland backstop. But the backstop is not the only problem with Mrs May’s deal. There are lots of problems.

Essentially, the PM’s deal would mean that we leave the EU at a price of at least £39 billion but without many substantive issues agreed even as our hands are tied behind our back in the negotiations. In future, each EU member will have a veto on what we want. We will be rule-takers not rule-makers. We will be transformed from a country with a seat at the top table into a nation of lobbyists.

The deal will almost certainly leave us worse off, which is why the Prime Minister has always evaded the question of whether it will make us richer, because she knows it won’t.

In essence, in voting for this deal, we are choosing a third-rate future for our constituents. If it were to pass, we will be in permanent negotiation with the EU. Brexit will still dominate the news — because all the big decisions in the political declaration that will shape our future in Europe, and the world, are yet to be agreed. We will be relying on the good faith of the EU to deliver the bespoke agreement we have been led to expect.

So backing the deal, while convenient in the short term, is certainly not pragmatic. We will be losing, not taking, control of national destiny. And the public will, rightly, not accept the democratic deficit and loss of sovereignty this entails. The Government has, by and large, managed to stonewall serious scrutiny of its Brexit plans with empty slogans designed to conceal the reality of our predicament from the voting public — this is a perfect recipe for everyone to feel betrayed.

To move forward, the Government’s closed, secretive approach has to stop. We need to be honest about our need for a sensible extension to Article 50 to work through all options and stop threatening our own citizens with no deal.