It was a dark evening in our parliament’s history. Many has been the occasion when parliament has stood up against bad, dangerous government. Last night was not one of them. The Conservative Brexit government said to parliament “we don’t have a clue what will happen if you vote for Brexit – but vote for it anyway.” And it did.

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The Liberal Democrats were the only UK-wide party that voted against. Labour could have joined us and blocked Theresa May’s hard Brexit, but chose to sit on its hands. There will be families today fearful that they will be torn apart, no longer feeling welcome in Britain. Their only crime is that a member of the family was born somewhere else in the EU. Shamelessly, the government is using such people like chips in a casino. Shamefully, Labour has let them.

Jeremy Corbyn could have ensured ministers were held to account in Brexit negotiations, but gave his parliamentarians a night off and wrote a blank cheque to the government. May will try to use this to deliver the hardest and harshest of Brexits few voted for, endangering another union (this one the United Kingdom), damaging our economy and reducing the life chances of young people.

Labour is meant to be the opposition. For all the party’s hard-left posturing, its politics of the placard, on the biggest question in a generation, Labour might as well have decamped to the Tory benches. Despite having so few MPs, we are now the only opposition to this government.

Apparently, May will trigger article 50 soon, despite rearing back from doing so today. I suppose we should be grateful on this occasion that our prime minister is a ditherer. To trigger article 50 while government Brexit strategy is in chaos would be an act of historic recklessness.

Ministers have simply not done the work to provide new trade deals. Even Liam Fox admits crashing out of the single market without new arrangements would be “bad” for Britain, itself a magisterial understatement. But if May rushes headlong into a panicked triggering of article 50 without a clear idea of what she wants out of negotiations, she will have left us at the mercy of 27 countries who have heard little but table-thumping and empty threats from ministers. Despite the sacking of wise heads such as Michael Heseltine, it is vital that Conservatives who believe in economic sanity find their voice. Just as Tory MPs are reminding the government of its manifesto commitment not to raise national insurance, so they must remind May of her party’s manifesto commitment to stay in the single market.

Huge swathes of the population are disenfranchised by the lemming-like Labour-Tory rush over the cliff edge into a hard Brexit. Manchester Gorton will see a byelection in an area where 60% of people voted remain. Labour assumes it will win, but waving through Brexit is endangering worker rights, environmental protection and the future of immigrants. Many will be mystified: why wouldn’t a progressive fight the Tories on this?

If you haven’t, you can’t plausibly fight them on anything else. Just as you can’t have a hard Brexit and a strong economy, you can’t have a hard Brexit and a strong NHS. The Brexit squeeze, caused by a falling pound and rising prices, will gnaw at consumer confidence which has been bolstering the economy. Make no mistake, with tax revenues struggling, the chancellor will shrink the state. And as ever, it will be the poor who pay the price.

Meanwhile, the very future of our union has been jeopardised by the so-called Conservative and Unionist party (I guess we should no longer be surprised: the Tories delighted in being “the party of business”, once). For genuine patriots – I’m not talking about the Tory/Ukip nationalists whose patriotism is built on mistrust of “others” – this is a nightmare: as an English patriot, I face the prospect of losing friends across the Channel and family the other side of Hadrian’s Wall.

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It is tempting to despair. But we can’t give up. I am proud the Liberal Democrats are the only party fighting to protect our place in the EU while safeguarding that earlier union. All progressives should rally to this cause. If we fight hard Brexit, we can protect the union. And if we protect the union, together we can fight hard Brexit.

Events can still derail hard Brexit. A worsening economy could force Tories to come to their senses. And the longer it rumbles on, the clearer it will be that ministers have no plan. At every point progressives must fight, from securing pension rights for EU nationals who have paid taxes here for years to staying in Europol so we don’t see a recreation of the Costa del Crime.

The Tories want to jump into the darkness. We don’t need to jump with them.