As Theresa May lets the Brexit doomsday clock tick, MPs must be bold and put their constituents' interests first

We might be about to damage our country irreparably by making the most ill-conceived and masochistic exit possible from the European Union

This week a group of Tory and Labour MPs took the unprecedented step of forming their own group. They did this specifically to oppose Theresa May’s disastrous Brexit plans and to call out the extremists who are the rotten core of both of our main political parties. More MPs are likely to follow their example and set up on their own.

Dozens of May’s traditionally loyal backbenchers have warned that they could rebel against the government in a bid to prevent a no-deal Brexit. Leaders of the group – comprising, significantly, both Leavers and Remainers – say they may back what they call “alternatives” if the prime minister’s reworked deal cannot command a Commons majority.

In the fog of the Brexit battle for the future of our country, it is sometimes difficult to see the overall picture, but what is now becoming clearer – given Jeremy Corbyn’s abject failure after almost three years to step up to the plate, and his recent topping as the worst opposition leader since 1977 in a satisfaction poll – is that a real opposition is beginning to find its voice on Brexit. After Corbyn and May failed to take the hint the first two times, a third major march is, meanwhile, planned by The Independent for 23 March

All of these developments are cheering but none of them reassure me that we are not about to damage our country irreparably by making the most ill-conceived and masochistic exit possible from the European Union. As things stand, this remains our fate on 29 March, just six days after the Put It To the People march. The problem is that May does not have to put it to the people. All she has to do is to continue to do what she has been doing so far, which is to say nothing at all, and to allow the doomsday clock to keep ticking.

On mainland Europe, if not here, preparations for a no-deal Brexit are well advanced, resourced and thought through. Our soon-to-be-former European partners have spent substantial sums of money bracing themselves for the impact of our monumental nationalistic folly. Alarmingly, there is informed talk that the European Commission negotiators will not end talks after the deadline passes at the end of March, but will coolly and calmly reset their clocks for a new cliff-edge date: 18 April.

After 20 days of the inevitable chaos at our ports, supermarkets and borders, the deadline will be Britain’s only chance to avoid a more lasting rupture with its biggest trading partner. They will, of course, want something in return for this concession: our assurance that we will not – in the reckless, foolhardy words of Boris Johnson – “go whistle” when it comes to honouring the legal obligations we signed up to when we joined the EU. It is far more likely that the UK will indeed have to make the €7bn of net contributions to the EU’s budget for 2019.

As for the most hardline and ideological Brextremists who so deviously manipulated us into this horrific mess, even they are no longer making a pretence that Brexit is about taking control of our money, laws and borders. It is all too obvious that now, on the contrary, we are about to surrender all control, have no real say and surrender our seat at the top table.

What is about to happen – in terms of the infringement of the rights not just of the peoples of the EU but also of the UK – may well not even be legal, but our government, and, shamefully, Corbyn, seem curiously indifferent to national and international legislation, the fundamentals of economic management, national and international security, the plight of the most vulnerable in our society who are about to be hit the hardest and even the hard-won peace we have across the Irish Sea.

From the Brexit heartlands, we are finally beginning to hear on mainstream news programmes the previously unheard voices of workers, especially in the car manufacturing industry, farming communities and retail sector, expressing utter horror about what they can see being done in their name. It no longer matters how anyone voted in the EU referendum, but it does matter now that everyone recognises Brexit has metamorphosed into an ugly, hard-right ideology that will benefit the few at vast expense to the majority.

For all that, the people are now telling our MPs loudly and clearly that enough is enough. I heard one MP being interviewed this week who said she would think about joining her colleagues in their newly formed Independent Group, but she had first to think about her family and her mortgage. That is what now counts all too often as “public service”.

Our elected representatives have no choice but to accept that they will never be forgiven if they do not, for once, put the jobs and best interests of their constituents before their own.

Gina Miller is founder of Lead Not Leave

For more details about the Put It To The People march – and to sign up – please visit https://www.peoples-vote.uk/march

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