The great Brexit betrayal has begun”. I first wrote those words in a piece for the Telegraph in July 2017. How everybody laughed at the time. “Poor old Nigel,” they said. “He’s so desperate to be relevant.”

Well, although it pains me to say it, the vote in Parliament to take no deal off the table proves that, 20 months ago, I was right.

I know Westminster’s current crop of career-minded politicians only too well. They are anti-democrats posing as men and women of honour, many of them unaware of the workings of the political project that is the European Union. Indeed, I doubt if they could even name its seven key institutions.

If ignorance breeds deceit, it is easy to see why the political class pretended it would respect the result of the EU referendum, but ever since June 23, 2016 has twisted and turned, doing its best to frustrate the will of the people.

In February 2017, 498 MPs voted to trigger Article 50. This represented a House of Commons majority of 384. Simply by taking part in this vote, as opposed to abstaining, it was implicit that every MP agreed to respect its result, whatever that result was.