Today, the prime minister has to put forward her Brexit plan B. But Theresa May’s repeated delays mean there are now only 67 days left until the 29 March deadline – and I am really worried the government is drifting by accident into a damaging and chaotic “no deal” that would hit manufacturing, jobs, food prices, policing and security.

That is why, with other cross-party select committee chairs and MPs, I’m putting forward a new bill; it means that if we reach the end of February and things still aren’t sorted out, then parliament would get a vote on whether to extend article 50 and give everyone a bit more time.

The bill doesn’t stop Brexit or decide what kind of Brexit we should have or what kind of deal would work. Nor does it affect the result of the referendum. It doesn’t revoke article 50, it just avoids us crashing out with no deal in place at the end of March. The government and parliament still need to resolve the best way forward, but the bill means if needed there can be a bit more time. This plan doesn’t subvert parliamentary processes either. It just means using the provisions of the EU withdrawal act to make sure there is time to debate and pass one bill.

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To be honest, we shouldn’t need to do this. The prime minister should be taking a lead and ruling out no deal. People have a right to expect that their government will prevent the kind of crisis that delays their medicines, pushes up the price of food, clogs up motorways and ports, puts manufacturers’ supplies at risk or makes it easier for criminals to evade justice.

One senior police officer told me no deal is good news for criminals and bad news for victims. Currently the police and border force check crucial EU criminal databases over a thousand times a day to identify terror suspects, sex offenders, wanted criminals or dangerous weapons. The European arrest warrant allows suspects wanted for trial abroad to swiftly be sent back. All that stops on 29 March if we have no deal.

The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has warned about tariffs on beef and lamb. Tereos in Normanton told me tariffs meant doubling the price of a bag of the Whitworths sugar it produces. Local manufacturers Haribo and Burberry, small businesses like the nearby florists and local trade unions have warned about the impact of border delays on trade, production and jobs. When families are already overstretched, the government shouldn’t be putting them under more pressure.

But repeated government delays have now run down the clock. Article 50 only provides for 24 months of negotiations, yet May used four of them for a general election, took 16 months before even setting out her objectives in the Chequers plan and repeatedly delayed the final vote even though she knew her deal had been rejected from all sides.

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Nor have ministers ever done the consultation and consensus-building needed to get a deal through. No one pretends it would have been easy, but I called on the prime minister after the general election to set up a cross-party commission on the negotiations or consult before setting red lines. Instead she didn’t even give parliament a vote or consult the public on the government’s negotiating objectives. Even now, May has fudged the political declaration so we only really have a two-year stop-gap with no real idea what kind of Brexit comes after.

So to be honest I am fed up of hearing some of the government ministers involved in all these delays, fudges and failings now claiming that MPs trying to sort it out are betraying the public. It’s like students who are about to fail an exam lashing out at the teachers who are trying to get them a bit of extra time.

Also how can it be a betrayal if the practical consequences for most people will be exactly the same as if a deal was in place? Remember that the transition period already proposed would have meant little changed during 2019 anyway because all the single market and EU rules were to continue for two years.

I’m also fed up with the prime minister and her cabinet, who know we need to rule out no deal but are too weak to do so, and instead are standing back in the hope that parliament will do the job for them. That’s not leadership. Unpopular as it is to say it, someone has to admit that if things aren’t sorted soon then the government and country need more time.

• Yvette Cooper is the Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford