Given that there is little chance of the UK getting a good deal from the European Union, accepting the Electoral Commission’s findings of illegal over-expenditure by the two Leave organisations in the 2016 referendum and by the Democratic Unionist Party spending dark money on a London Metro spread before June 23, acknowledging the monstrous lies told by Boris Johnson and the immigrant scare stories spread by Nigel Farage, it is time to reconsider.

Johnson’s appointment as foreign secretary was the ultimate in cynicism. The alliance with the DUP when 56 per cent of Northern Ireland voters opted to remain in the EU is equally cynical. Indeed, the involvement of Cambridge Analytica and Aggregate IQ using Facebook as a means of influencing voters in itself invalidates the 2016 referendum.

Theresa May should respect the Northern Irish decision to remain in the EU and give them special access to the Customs Union and Single European Market. Then, UK banks could relocate in Belfast instead of going to Paris or Frankfurt. The Irish border conundrum would also be solved.

The prime ministers of Malta and the Czech Republic have called for a referendum on the final deal.

This view is shared by most other member states. For the Conservative Party, a people’s vote would be a masterstroke to bring the party together. It would avoid the prospect of a future decade of Labour rule as happened in 1997 after John Major silenced the idiots on the Maastricht Treaty.

It would actually be the one thing, which could redeem May’s lost reputation. Ardent Tory Remainers should vote against the deal and for a further referendum to include all UK expatriates and all 16- and 17-year-olds. Indeed, a second referendum could also revitalise the pro-European Liberal Democratic Party.

Joseph Muscat is absolutely right to support the idea of a people’s vote on the final deal.

My uncle, Philip Hogg, was the first governor of the Bank of Malta and adviser to the governor of the Bank of England. He would have agreed with Mark Carney’s assessment that Brexit will deeply damage the UK.