In my last months as Lib Dem leader I’m determined to do one thing – force another Brexit referendum

The cause of Remain is not lost. Join us on Saturday to bring the country back from the brink

With less than a week to go, the prime minister is trying to blame everyone except herself for the crisis she has created. By firing abuse at MPs for failing to fall in behind her hopeless withdrawal agreement, she insults not just them but the 700,000 people who marched last year, all who supported them, and the many more we hope to see on Saturday.

When Theresa May called in opposition leaders for a meeting on Wednesday, she appeared to be operating in a parallel universe. First, she assumes that her deal will be endorsed by MPs in the end, as the fruits of a blackmail operation in which she threatens the country with a no-deal exit. I was clear on behalf of the Liberal Democrats: we have no mandate to support Brexit, and we’re simply not going to.

Secondly, she has forgotten that the Leave campaign won the 2016 referendum with only 37 per cent of eligible voters on board, and by only a very narrow majority. We are monotonously reminded that 17.4 million people voted to Leave, as if the 16.1 million who voted to Remain simply do not matter and deserve to be ignored entirely. The hard Brexit course to which Theresa May is now capitulating does not reflect or represent the referendum result.

Thirdly, she appears not to recognise that public opinion has swung firmly behind Remain, with 60 per cent preferring to stay in the European Union. “The will of the people” has been used as an alibi for pursuing the fetishes of the most fanatically anti-European part of the Conservative Party for far too long. This Saturday, a huge contingent of Liberal Democrats will join hundreds of thousands of others to make a statement on the streets: the United Kingdom is a Remain country now.

The real “will of the people” is to have this question put back to the public, with the chance to retain all the benefits we enjoy in the EU: pan-European citizenship, an open, growing economy and a strong British voice at the European negotiating table.

(Revocation of Article 50 is a last resort. We prefer a referendum than revocation. But if that isn’t possible, parliamentarians may need to revoke Article 50 in order to protect the country from no deal.)

One of the principal tragedies of the Brexit folly is how distracted our own government has become from all of the issues that it would (presumably) be concentrating on otherwise. Many of these challenges – leading the medical research efforts to support an ageing population, tackling climate change, preventing cross-border organised crime, regulating the technology giants – can be better addressed together than they can be apart. Staying in the European Union means Britain leading European efforts in these areas, and shaping European law in the national interest. Losing our say in these areas by leaving the EU is like trading shared control of the weather for absolute control of a tiny umbrella.

For too long, pro-Europeans in Britain took our place in the EU for granted. Many shied away from speaking up for the EU as a project and an institution because voters are instinctively more sceptical than the political class. If there is one good thing to come of Brexit, it is that the UK now has the largest pro-European movement on the whole continent. We should take heart from that.

In these worrying times of brinkmanship from the prime minister, it is crucial we keep faith in our overriding belief that the UK is stronger and safer inside the European Union; and that the European Union is stronger with the UK as a member. The cause of Remain is not lost, and every single person who joins the march on Saturday will be helping to bring Britain back from the brink. Our government may have been captured by Brexiteers, but our people have not been. This weekend, we fight back.

Sir Vince Cable is leader of the Liberal Democrats