The one good reason in favour of letting Parliament be as fully involved as possible in the forthcoming negotiations with the European Union over Brexit can be summed up in two words: parliamentary sovereignty. The case against has only one strand of any weight, the possibility that Parliament might use such involvement to subvert the whole process, thereby undermining the result of the referendum. On such grounds a storm of synthetic anger has been whipped up in the pro-Brexit press against the three High Court judges who rejected the Government argument that the Brexit process can be launched by royal prerogative without parliamentary approval. These same newspapers campaigned against Britain’s EU membership precisely in the name of parliamentary sovereignty. They are manifest hypocrites.

The Government only holds the reins of power because Parliament has consented to it, and the central condition of that consent is that the Government answers to Parliament. Anything else smacks of tyranny. In any event, there is no realistic possibility of Parliament refusing outright to give permission for the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.