Theresa May’s critics will find it difficult to accuse her of having no plan for Brexit – the same can't be said for Corbyn

There will be much debate over the White Paper, but in the end Article 50 will be triggered

The PM is hoping to trigger Article 50 in March (PA)

Almost artistic in its minimalism, the Bill to activate Article 50 and thus remove Britain from the European Union is but a few lines long. The end of the European dream is enjoying the shortest of official obsequies.

The preamble is almost as long as the substance and fewer than 150 words are all that is required to end four decades of historic achievement. It is a moment for reflection on how Britain’s long and tortuous attempt to gain entry to the European Communities, as then the EU was styled, which took three formal applications and on-and-off negotiations lasting for almost a decade and a half can be undone in such summary, casual fashion.

Such a brisk, brusque set of obsequies suits the Prime Minister well. And yet of course the substance of Britain’s new relationship with the European Union will take rather more time to work through than the Bill’s brevity might suggest. The opposition parties will bring forward some reasoned amendments aimed at improving transparency and – crucially – offering the British people and Parliament the final say on the terms of exit from the European Union.

Jeremy Corbyn has so far shown little appetite for exploiting divisions in the Tory ranks, of mobilising the doubts of many about the whole process (including some who voted Leave) or, moreover, acting in the national interest to secure this last gesture of democratic accountability. The SNP perhaps naturally enough seems more interested in the democratic rights of the people of Scotland rather than those of the nation as a whole. Only the Liberal Democrats, all nine of them, are united and determined to use the Article 50 Bill to secure another referendum on the terms of exit from the EU. Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionists and the one Ukip MP will reliably support the Government, and Sinn Fein, as ever, won’t turn up anyway, on dogmatic grounds.

So divisions between and within the opposition parties, and most grievously across the Labour Party, mean that the Government’s Bill will almost certainly be passed in its current form. Theresa May, more of a pragmatist than she is sometimes given credit for, has spotted that the offer of a White Paper will be sufficient to calm any restiveness on her own back benches. The rest will be noisy argument.

Given the content of her recent speech and the new White Paper, Theresa May’s critics will find it much more difficult to accuse her of having no plan at all for Brexit. What is much more of a problem politically, and for the democratic process itself, is that the main opposition party is much further away from any kind of alternative strategy than the Government is. That makes Labour’s attacks much less effective, as we have witnessed in recent weeks, and of course that is itself a weakness in the process of holding the executive to account. Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit Secretary, does his best with a brief that falls apart as he delivers it. It is not his fault that his leader thinks Europe is about workers’ rights and not much else, nor that there is such a mismatch between Labour’s electoral bases in the North and London.

The Supreme Court may have confirmed that Parliament has certain constitutional powers in this matter, but the Labour Party doesn’t look very interested in making the most of the opportunity. Of many, it is Mr Corbyn’s most lamentable failure, and may cost the nation, and his party, dear.