It would be a preposterous act of betrayal of the British people if a second referendum were called, in an endeavour to resolve the Brexit shambles, writes Chris Moncrieff from Westminster.

This is true whether you are a Remainer or a Leaver. Parliament ordained the referendum, and at the same time gave a solemn promise that they'd abide by the result.

The fact politicians have got themselves in such a mess trying to implement the referendum result in favour of quitting the EU cannot ever be used as an excuse for defaulting on the original undertaking.

To her eternal credit, the Prime Minister refuses to bow to the clamour for a second referendum. The trouble is that the people who really matter - the great British electorate - are being fobbed off with contradictory stories about what is going on behind the scenes.

Some are insisting that the Cabinet is involved in its own civil war about whether to have a second referendum, while others insist this is completely untrue.

Meanwhile, those calling for another poll are claiming that those who voted for the UK to leave the EU did not appreciate what this would involve.

How patronising! Of course, most people realised that the EU negotiating team would try to squeeze every drop of blood out of the UK in what has approached the level of bullying the Prime Minister partly, no doubt, to frighten any other member states which might be considering following in the UK's footsteps.

It's as if the elitists simply assume - arrogantly - that they know better than the people they are supposed to serve (and are paid handsomely for it).

Some of the reasons given by those demanding another referendum are bizarre, to put it mildly.

Sir Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat leader, has said the Remain campaign during the original referendum fell far short of even being effective. Well, that is laughable and is no reason for going to the polls again.

The truth is that the British voters, on both sides of the argument, deserve better of their politicians than this.

Despite all of this uncertainty, Theresa May is fighting her corner against a stubborn and obdurate team of negotiators in Brussels, who are finding her a much tougher opponent than they'd probably expected.