by Sarah Wollaston MP

There is nothing ‘clean’ about a No Deal Brexit. Whatever the sloganising urging ‘let’s go WTO’ it would be economically ruinous and the Government knows this.

Cabinet documents have shown the scale of the real world problems that would unfold and we are all hearing the steady drum beat of key industries pulling out of future investment and announcing future closures.

Having spent most of the last decade recovering from the 2008 crash, how could any responsible Government knowingly and deliberately drive our economy over the cliff and scupper all hope of reversing austerity? Yet that cliff edge is the only place where our Prime Minister has refused to lay down any of her infamous red lines.

A clear majority of MPs have examined the evidence of the wider consequences for security, health, science, farming and the cost of living, to name but a few, and have voted not to take their constituents into the abyss. The PM, however, is doggedly carrying on with a futile attempt to reopen a legal agreement that she herself agreed and which took two years to negotiate. No one seriously expects this to succeed.

There comes a point when running down the clock towards March 29 without the required meaningful vote in Parliament becomes in effect the same as a policy to deliver the consequences of No Deal because it becomes too late to enact the legal process to prevent it. It is now clear that is the policy and over the weekend the PM confirmed she will delay the key vote until we are just over a fortnight from departure.

I can no longer remain in a party prepared to act so irresponsibly and I will also be voting to support an amendment that will give greater control to Parliament to prevent a chaotic Brexit for which we are woefully unprepared.

My decision to leave the Conservative Party, however, is about more than the gross mishandling of Brexit.

I and two of my colleagues, Heidi Allen and Anna Soubry, set out our reasons in a joint letter to the Prime Minister last week. It can be viewed online at https://twitter.com/TheInd Group/status/1098178885349457921.

It has been an honour to represent this constituency.

Since the time I stood to be the Conservative Parliamentary candidate in the country’s first open postal primary in 2009, I have pressed for a tolerant, moderate and centrist approach to politics.

The Conservative Party I joined a decade ago welcomed a ‘One Nation’ approach and was trying to modernise to broaden its appeal, including to younger voters. I have not changed but the party I joined has significantly shifted to the right under the dominant influence of the European Research Group and Democratic Unionist Party whose values I do not share, and it has changed to something that I can no longer support.

When Theresa May stood for the leadership, she gave me her personal assurance that she would keep the party close to the centre ground and, like so many people, I was hugely encouraged by her pledge on the steps of Downing Street to address the ‘burning injustices’ in our society. Sadly these were empty words and those promises have been abandoned and if the PM deliberately tanks our economy, there will be even less money to do so in future.

Nothing about my decision has any bearing on the high regard in which I hold so many of our hard-working local councillors and my local MP colleagues with whom I will continue to work constructively on behalf of our area.

I have been touched by the overwhelmingly positive response to my decision from local people and want to assure you that in sitting as an independent MP I remain as committed as ever to representing this constituency and to working across party lines with an open approach that seeks to be guided by the evidence.

I do not think that the central issue that is causing such division and which lies at the heart of our current constitutional crisis would be answered by a general election or a by-election. Neither of these are based on single issues but I have no doubt an election will be coming before the end of the current five-year cycle.

For the current crisis we need something that does address the core issue of Brexit. It is time for the PM to stop trying to coerce Parliament into accepting a false binary choice between her bad deal and No Deal.

A better way forward would be to put the actual negotiated Withdrawal Agreement and Future Framework, which represents Brexit reality, warts and all, to the people with a choice between that and remain.