MPs should back the deal

The new deal between Boris Johnson and the EU is not perfect. In this imperfect world no set of compromises with a chance of being agreed could be perfect.

But it is a reasonable compromise in which both sides have given ground.

Throughout the Brexit process people from every part of the political spectrum and both sides of the Brexit divide have put forward a whole herd unicorns - impossible ideas which had not chance of coming to fruition.

This deal is not a unicorn. It is a real offer which is on the table now and which MPs can and should approve tomorrow.

Many MPs have said that they would do anything they could to stop a "No Deal" Brexit.

Well there are only two ways to take a "No Deal" Brexit off the table.

One is to revoke Article 50 and try to cancel Brexit altogether. I believe that if MPs were that stupid there would be a backlash in the election which has to be held soon, which would certainly result in a good number of the MPs who voted for such a policy losing their seats, probably for a majority in parliament for leaving and quite possibly for leaving without a deal. It would be undemocratic, divisive, and I believe it would fail.

The better and more certain way to take a "No Deal" Brexit off the table is to agree a deal. We have a deal on the table.

This deal delivers the vast majority of what the people who voted Leave were told they were voting for without wrecking the British economy.

MPs who said when they voted for the Benn act that they were voting, not against their promises to respect the referendum, but to prevent a "no deal" exit from the EU now have the opportunity to agree something which delivers precisely that.

They should back the deal.

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