MPs have failed on a grand scale over Brexit

A Commons defeat for Theresa May’s proposed EU withdrawal agreement this week is priced in. Westminster has shrugged and accepted another Commons drubbing as a given. MPs’ refusal to back the deal is just another fact of life, something mundane and barely worth commenting on; all the action is in considering reactions and responses to that defeat: will Mrs May cling on? Who might follow her?

But that assumed Commons refusal deserves more attention because it represents failure, failure on a grand scale. Failure of leadership and failure of courage. MPs’ failure to do their jobs.

I think MPs should back the deal. I don’t think it’s a very good deal, because I don’t think any Brexit deal is good. But I do think we have to leave, because we voted to leave. And the deal is the least bad way to achieve that necessary end.

As a couple of friends have recently pointed out to me, in arguing for the deal I am a member of a very small club: very few commentators have made the case for the deal, either on grounds of politics or policy.