IF you voted Leave in the 2016 referendum you are rightly angry that the Conservative Party has failed to deliver on the result.

We are used to the idea that in an election, under our system, winner takes all and gets to decide policy while they have a majority in Parliament.

A referendum is different – in 2016 a small majority voted to Leave. A sensible government would have looked at the split of the vote and concluded that the British people wanted to be slightly less close to the EU.

Instead, they ignored the feelings of nearly half the country and plunged into three wasted years trying to achieve a deal which removed us from the Single Market and the Customs Union but protected us from the economic consequences.

This was impossible and as attitudes hardened, it was left too late to try to reach the cross party consensus that the situation demanded. While remain lost the vote, we do not have to accept a method of executing Brexit that is so fundamentally at odds with our beliefs and values.

Especially so since the default of our new Government (led by a Prime Minister with no mandate) is the nonsensical ‘no deal’.

Let’s be clear, we need a deal with the EU whatever happens, and breaking our commitments to them (for example refusing to honour promises made by the May government) is the worst possible way to start.

It will mean 10 more years of Brexit while the mess is sorted out.

There are three choices, if you accept that ‘no deal’ is not an end point but a disastrous starting point.

These are to remain closely linked to the EU, but outside the political structure, secondly to try to align ourselves with the US which will mean major risk to certain sectors of the economy and third to remain full members of the EU where we have significant influence.

Let’s face it, neither side in the referendum covered themselves in glory. Leave lied and broke electoral law and Remain just tried to frighten people. Three years on the country is bitterly divided, tired of the whole issue and facing major disruptions for years to come.

There is way to resolve this, one that could see the whole issue put permanently to bed in just a few months. A public vote with a clear and honest choice laid out for us to choose how we wish to proceed.

There will be an election soon, it is inevitable. The good sense of the British people has rarely been more essential to sort out the mess of Brexit.

DAVID MYALL Warrington