The Tory Government is exhausted, drained of all energy by their own endless internecine battles over Europe. It is clear that to make a fresh start the country needs a General Election.

Far from high political principle, the European Union referendum’s seeds were sown as a lowly political device by David Cameron to resolve the internal divisions of the Tory party and their growing existential fears over the rise of UKIP. We are now all reaping the bitter harvest. The country has been landed with a bad deal and the unedifying spectacle of a rogues’ gallery of hardline Brexiteers denouncing the product of their own actions.

Parliamentary arithmetic means there is little hope of this deal surviving a vote in the Commons.

With Jacob Rees-Mogg and the rest of the European Research Group in open rebellion, Dominic Raab joining an ever-growing list of former Brexit Ministers, and other Ministers going and gone, the Tories’ time in Downing Street should surely be up. This is beyond a party political argument.

So, of course, while there is an element of drama in watching the Tory party turning on itself, the problems of Theresa May’s deal are far more serious than that.

One of Labour’s six tests for the Tories’ Brexit is whether it delivers for all regions and nations of the UK. Theresa May’s negotiations have patently not produced a deal that delivers for the people of Scotland.

Scottish Labour has been clear from the beginning that we need a deal that best supports jobs and our economy. Which is why a few weeks after my election as Scottish Labour leader, I said that we needed a new comprehensive and permanent customs union – because you need that to protect our manufacturing industry and its supply chains. This would also be the cleanest and best way to protect the Good Friday Agreement.

We also need a strong and stable single market relationship, one that is good for jobs in our service industries. And we need a deal that guarantees no erosion of workers’ and consumers’ rights and environmental standards.

The Tories' Brexit proposal delivers none of those things. For these reasons it has to be rejected by the House of Commons – and it's why every one of Scotland’s Members of Parliament, regardless of party, must vote down Theresa May’s deal.

But the position of the Scottish Conservative Party is now totally untenable. Their leader, Ruth Davidson, and the Scottish Secretary David Mundell, threatened to resign if the deal did not protect the integrity of the UK. Theresa May ignored them – but so far they have clung on to their positions. It is remarkable that Dominic Raab has shown more backbone and integrity than either of Scotland’s leading Tories.

The SNP’s argument that there must be a separate deal for Scotland is not a matter of political principle. It is an exercise in cynical political posturing.

For Scotland to be in a customs union, the logical position is for whole of the UK to be in customs union. A hard border between Scotland and the rest of UK would make even worse the economic damage of Brexit. And remember the UK single market is four times more important for Scotland’s economy than the EU single market.

But providing the SNP with the excuse to play fast and loose on this issue is yet another way in which May’s Brexit threatens the integrity of the UK.

Should MPs vote the deal down then this would constitute a total loss of confidence in the Government. From there, the right outcome is a General Election so that the people can finish the job they started in 2017 and sweep the Tories from power.

A General Election and a change of government is necessary to break this Brexit deadlock and avoid the no deal outcome. A General Election and change of government would create the conditions for the European Union to stop the clock on Article 50 and to begin meaningful negotiations with a new government that can deliver a deal to parliament and the country.

We need a deal that works for the whole of the UK and it is becoming increasingly clear that is something only an incoming Labour government can deliver.