ANY day now the Government will publish the terms it has negotiated for the UK to leave the EU – and it's clear they'll fall far short of the promises made by Brexit campaigners during the referendum.

This is the biggest political decision our country will make in a generation. It's vital to get it right. The final decision shouldn't be made in secret by the Government, or even by “a meaningful vote” in Parliament. I know how party pressures can warp decisions at Westminster. This decision should be made by the people in a further, and final, referendum.

We need a public verdict for three reasons:

• The case for Brexit has become weaker: Brexit was sold on a string of false promises – which Brexit leaders like Boris Johnson and David Davis were unable to deliver in negotiations with the EU. The public deserve a vote on the reality, not the wishful thinking we heard before.

• Brexit divided the country: the Brexit vote was very close, far closer than the first referendum when we joined the EU. Slightly more people voted in 2016 to leave than to remain, but there was not an overall majority for Brexit. Many people did not vote because they were undecided, didn't understand the issues, or felt that nothing would really change.We know more now. A further vote would be better informed. If Parliament rubber stamps Brexit, without testing public opinion, many people will cry 'foul' because opinion polls now show more people want to remain than leave.

• Brexit will affect us, as individuals, for decades to come: which is why the people should decide.

Let's dig deeper:

Why are the Leave campaigners against a further referendum? Because they doubt whether they would win a further vote. They say that remainers should respect the 2016 result – even though it was based on mis-selling.

The Leavers did accept the first referendum which took us into Europe. They argued that the situation had changed, and pressed for a new vote. But things have changed since the referendum so, even on their own argument, a further referendum is needed.

Former Prime Minister John Major pointed out last week, that we were misled: told we could leave the EU but keep the benefits of the free market. We can't. That we would get back money to spend on the NHS. Instead the NHS has lost thousands of nurses who came from EU countries but have now gone home.

We were told that alternative trade agreements would be negotiated quickly. None have been. We were told we would all be better off. But the pound has slumped pushing up the prices in the shops and making foreign travel more costly.

A recent report, “Our Future, Our Choice”, shows that younger people – like my children, and yours – should expect lower earnings, about £76,000 less by 2050, if we lose access to the EU free market.

This weekend, on Remembrance Sunday, we mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, and pledge to avoid such conflict again. My grandfather fought in the First World War, and my father in the Second World War. They both lost their youth and lived with war wounds until they died.

We should remember that the EU grew out of institutions created after the Second World War – the European Iron and Steel Community and Common Market – to settle differences between European countries over trade, access to raw materials, migration and pollution through political negotiation instead of war. To turn our back on the EU is not in our national interest.

The EU isn't perfect. We don't get everything we want because decisions depend on compromise between 28 countries, but remaining in the EU will be better and cheaper for the UK, than trying to go it alone.

I urge the MPs representing our city and region, whatever their personal views on Brexit, to trust the people and agree a further referendum.

And I urge readers of the York Press to join me, and other local people, in St Helen's Square at 1.30pm on Saturday to make their voices heard.

Sir Hugh Bayley was MP for York Central from 1992 to 2015. He now sits on the Nursing and Midwifery Council, regulating these professions in the UK, on the board of the International Rescue Committee and works for the UN and Foreign Office on strengthening democratic institutions abroad.