Listening this morning to Radio 4 Today it becomes crystal clear why our decision to leave the EU was made on a false set of expectations and indeed why the Conservative Party are no longer fit to operate in a national role. Tom Tugendhat MP for Tonbridge and Malling in Kent and Chairman of the Foreign Affairs select Committee used his interview to defend the role of Theresa May but in doing so disclosed a clear reason for going back to the country over the Brexit decision. He claims that this negotiation which he believes Theresa May is best suited for is the toughest peace time negotiation our nation has faced for decades. If this is correct and if his view is shared by other members of the Party, they need to come clean and admit this together. If our decision to leave has placed our nation in such a difficult position, then it is clear that our decision and indeed the post referendum statements by the Government itself were based on inadequate understanding and this is why a proper set of clear possibilities now need to be presented to our nation before we go any further, either in our departure from the EU or in our attempts to reform the institution which we helped to form when John Major and Tony Blair were our Prime Ministers.

Then James Duddrige was interviewed, the MP for Rochford and Southend East was arguing for his hero, Boris Johnson to replace Theresa as Prime Minister so that we  would be in a better position to depart from the EU in an effective manner. However when he was asked had he signed a letter calling for Theresa to have a vote of no confidence, he admitted he hadn’t and he was not sure if he would, depending on how well her speech went this afternoon. The idea that his support for the leader of his party, let alone the Prime Minister and the Chief Negotiator depended on a speech is deeply concerning along with the idea that Boris can negotiate our way out of Brexit even though he showed he was incapable of persuading Theresa May to reform her Chequers proposals when he spent 24 hours in official country residence with the whole of the Cabinet all on site.

What we need is a chance for all these MPs, Ministers and their colleagues in other parties to come up with a meaningful set of options that they can together offer to the nation and indeed to the EU and the rest of our trading partners.