Three years after the EU referendum, the only clear route out of Brexit chaos is through the people

The question is not whether the deal can be changed but rather how both sides can sketch the outline of the future relationship between the UK and Europe. The best way to do that is to give the electorate a Final Say

It has been three years since the referendum on Britain leaving the European Union, and they have not been happy ones – whatever one’s views as to the issue itself. The central lessons of the past three years have been to show how difficult the UK’s relationship with Europe is for British politics and the British people, and that having a referendum is no magic solution to those difficulties. Indeed the referendum, by sharpening divisions, has made matters worse. Far from bringing people together, it has sadly increased the tensions in society.

For both major parties, it has been a period of anguish, though the difficulties have inevitably been more evident on the Tory side. It was one Conservative prime minister that called the referendum, another that failed to implement its narrowly determined result, and now a third Tory PM will have to make a further effort to find some sort of proposal that is acceptable to Europe and on which parliament can agree. While it is tempting to see this in party political terms – and in the arithmetic of votes in the House of Commons – party politics are a poor prism through which to view the national discord. The elections for the European parliament, with the humiliation of both major parties, were a testimony to that.

We are where we are, and it is not a comfortable place. As William Butler Yeats, the great Irish poet and Nobel prizewinner, wrote in 1919: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold … The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

Rebuilding the central ground will be the key task not just for the next prime minister, but for his successors for years to come. The party members who will pick the next leader have at least a clear choice. It is not for this editorial to try to add at this stage to the mass of comment about the relative qualities of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, except to note the obvious. One is a Leaver, the other a Remainer. One is chaotic, the other organised. One has noisy charisma, the other quiet charm. We will see how the contest develops, but the one thing this election does not do is to change the reality of the task the winner will have to tackle.

There can be no significant renegotiation of the leaving terms agreed with Brussels but rejected three times by parliament. Quite apart from the inevitable disinclination to reopen discussions, there is no time before, under the present agreement, the UK leaves the EU on 31 October. So the question is not whether the Brexit deal can be changed but rather how both sides can sketch the outline of the future relationship between the UK and Europe in such a way as to build support for it.

A decade from now the UK will inevitably have close ties with Europe on a host of different levels, whatever happens later this year. There is much both sides can agree upon, and it is powerfully in the interest of all to set these out.

If the Brexit deal, supported by an outline of the future relationship, can indeed be agreed, then this will require the support of parliament. But that will not be enough. The Independent has consistently argued there should be a Final Say referendum on this. We continue to do so. Things need not fall apart; the centre can hold. Indeed it must.