First, can I apologise on behalf of the political class for the continued division over Brexit.

I thought our instructions were clear: to leave the EU.

But a Remain-orientated Parliament has forced an impasse.

I shall continue to argue that the only way to lance the boil now is to leave the EU and re-negotiate from outside.

That would, I am sure, unite the country, for it would have to, and remove the rancour and division, as we would have left.

But the events of the past week have shown just how far away we are from that goal.

Worse, two years’ worth of negotiations were discarded on the eve of an important vote because it would have been lost.

Then, we had the humiliating episode of seeing our Prime Minister scamper around Europe, begging for concessions to make the deal more palatable to Parliament.

But her efforts were immediately undermined by interventions from Messrs Juncker, Tusk and Barnier, who spoke as one: the withdrawal agreement would not be changed.

This did not bode well for Mrs May, who returned empty-handed to face a challenge to her leadership.

She won it, but more than a third of the Party have no confidence in the Prime Minister.

No one wanted this, but Mrs May’s deal is not the one she’s promoted for months and I, for one, will not betray the referendum result.

As one Remainer told me: “Let’s take the pain, and get on with it.”

What baffles me and many of my colleagues now is why Mrs May thinks that tinkering at the edges of her deal will win through when we vote next month.

It won’t.

All this while a senior colleague refers to me and others as “extremists” for daring to try and honour the referendum.