A second referendum is a gift to the Brexiteers. It's their chance to prove they are still the voice of the people

To call another vote is a gamble, but it is a wonderful chance to take on those who decry Brexit – to look them in the eye, and defeat them once again

Brexit has been lost, surrendered by the politicians who championed it to Remainers. A vote by the people, for the people, to decide their own future has been undermined and betrayed. A second vote is now the only way it can be saved.

No sooner had the UK woken to the news that she had voted to leave the European Union, the siren calls for a second referendum began. Every line of attack was wheeled out, from "the public are stupid and couldn’t be trusted", to "the public are clever and will change their minds". Brexiteers sat back and mocked. These were the wails of a defeated elite unused to bloodied noses.

Now, I suspect, many of them wish they hadn’t wasted their time gloating.

As things stand, Brexit will not happen. Yes, Brexit won the referendum, but leading Brexiteers had argued for years that the EU was a devious institution and that the establishment would try any trick to prevent our exit. If they believed this, why were they not prepared for what happened next?

The Brexiteers who insisted people should decide, because politicians would never acquiesce, have lost control of the Brexit process – both inside and outside Parliament. Yet despite that they insist that there should not be a second referendum, oblivious to their impending defeat as another ballot edges towards the inevitable. "It’s not fair," they say. "We won first time."

It is they who are to blame for this situation. A lack of discipline – or perhaps competence – has conceded the field and, by extension, authority of the process to Remain. That is why, if Brexiteers genuinely want Brexit to succeed, they should now back the call for a second referendum.

Brexit’s biggest asset is the people. It’s why Eurosceptics campaigned for so long to hold a referendum, rather than leave the matter in the lap of party politicians and civil servants. Leavers pushed to giv​e the public the vote directly. They believed the people could be trusted to make up its mind on the matter of Europe. So what changed?

The solution to parliamentary infighting among a cohort stacked in favour of remain should not be to fold our arms and sulk as Brexit erodes. The people are now being ignored: they must be allowed to tell the government that they have not changed their minds and also, should they choose, that they do not want Theresa May’s deal either. If the public made that decision once, against the backdrop of pro-EU funding and propaganda, they can do so again.

Supporting the principle of fairness is not why so many leading Brexiteers respond reticently to the idea of another vote. It is because, deep down, Brexiteers are cut from the same elitist cloth as their Remainer counterparts. They do not trust the public to make the "right" decision.

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why Brexit has fallen so far; those who championed it did so for their own ends, believing themselves more knowledgable than the public, while guilty of the same incompetence as those they wished to replace in power. To call for a referendum now would be to acknowledge that incompetence, that they need the people’s help.

Yet Brexit is too important to be allowed to fail simply to let certain politicians save face. It needs to be restored to the people. And that means, once again, it must be put to the people.

The EU referendum was a powerful, catalytic moment of history. It gave people the chance to change an entrenched system, and challenge established elites, by a means other than violence. Historically, that is a rare thing.

A second referendum is a gamble. It is the only form of democracy in which the people can actually be consulted honestly. It is a wonderful chance to take on those who decry Brexit: to look them in the eye, and defeat them again. It is a chance to reclaim the narrative co-opted by the People's Vote campaign.

But more, it is a chance to be rid of self-appointed Brexit leaders who have threatened leaving the EU by their obstinence and intransigence. To show we will not suffer the old system - no matter who claims to lead it