WHICHEVER way you voted in the Referendum, you will, no doubt, be perplexed about what is going on in Parliament.

We have a political and constitutional crisis and the Prime Minister, whose ‘deal’ has been defeated on three occasions, still believes that Parliament must have the opportunity to vote on it yet again.

I asked her last Monday, if MPs are expected to vote on the same deal numerous times, then why can’t the people who it will really affect – people across the country, who have never had the opportunity to judge her deal against the current deal.

Most people I speak to just want Parliament to get on with the domestic agenda, and rightly so.

We urgently need houses built, our NHS to end the delays to treatment and a concerted effort on halting the escalating crime rates. We have been waiting months for a Green Paper on Social Care – vital in supporting some of the most vulnerable in our country. And, as children and young people rightly reminded us with their climate strike, we have a climate crisis too. Yet everything is blocked by Brexit.

Parliament can’t agree the withdrawal process, so there is little hope that it will agree a way forward.

It is predicted that we could see a decade of protracted negotiations, meeting with businesses; it is clear they will not hang around when they can make secure investments elsewhere in Europe. Without jobs, we will become poorer, as all economic forecasts predict, against a surge in the cost of living.

The stakes are high, not for the next occupant of No. 10, which is what this has become about – political fixes by the political elite for the political elite; stakes are high for you, for the future of our country, for all that is to come.

In the 33 months since the vote we have seen our divided nation polarised more and more.

Inequality is growing, and here in the north we feel it the most. The Prime Minister has even tried to pitch Parliament against the people, when she should have been looking in the mirror at her own failings. How this contrasts with the spirit of hope as a million people took to the streets just to ask for a democratic act, a say on her deal in the light of her Government’s failings.

From Monday, Parliament will yet again contemplate a solution having pushed back the date of departure to April 12.

There would appear to be just four options remaining in the time allowed. To depart with no deal which would be catastrophic, and I will not countenance; to revoke Article 50, which six million people have called for nationally, including 14,684, and counting, here in York; to ask for a long extension to Article 50 and hold European elections; or to hold a vote across the nation.

I favour the latter – it is democratic and enables everyone to make a free choice now that they have seen the beginnings of Brexit as to whether to continue or call it a day.

Labour trusts the people of our country and has supported you to have the final say. I trust you and will do all I can to give you this chance.