To say that the last few days have been an exceptional time in our country’s history would not, I think, be overstating the case.

From every point of view, both because of the immediate human drama and – ultimately, much more importantly – because of the long-term effects that these great decisions and events will have on the future of our country, this past couple of weeks have genuinely been (in that all too often misused phrase) ‘historic’ in the sense that historians in years to come will surely look back at this as a formative moment in the nation’s history.

We cannot know, of course, how this moment will look to those future historians as they cast their eyes back to where we are now. We do have not have the gift of prophesy.

But it seems to me that we do have something as important as the gift of prophesy. We have the ability to write our own history by working our way through the immense challenges the nation now faces and coming out the other side with arrangements that preserve the union of the United Kingdom and retain as many as possible of the practical advantages of EU membership following our exit from the EU.

I have received many letters from constituents in recent days – some doubting that the decision reached by a majority vote in the referendum will be carried out and others arguing vehemently that Parliament should now ignore this democratic referendum.

In response to both of these points of view, I think it is important to restate that we have the extraordinary good fortune to live in a law-governed democracy – and that this most precious thing of all has to be defended, particularly at times when divisions are deepest and the strains are greatest. I, as somebody who argued strenuously and repeatedly during the referendum for the view that was rejected by the majority, must now accept that rejection and work in unity with others on both sides of that referendum argument to ensure that the decision made by the British people is now implemented in the way most likely to act in the interests of the British people.