I BELIEVE the Brexit referendum result should be respected. I think most people want it to be delivered in an orderly and balanced fashion, protecting jobs while also bringing back control over our laws and money.

As a result, I backed the Prime Minister’s deal - along with the majority of my Scottish Conservative colleagues at Westminster - because it provided a pragmatic way to do just that.

It was a compromise, of course. And what’s clear from Tuesday’s result is that when a debate is as polarised as ours over Brexit, compromise has few friends and allies.

The result was a severe blow to the prospects of her deal and there is no getting away from it. The question is what happens next?

Clearly, people want to know if there is an alternative. The search is now on to see if there is one. I think it is now incumbent on those people who opposed the deal on Tuesday evening to set out what those alternatives might be. Are they realistic and credible? Would they be likely to win a Commons majority? Would they get us through the next few weeks?

Even in the 24 hours since the Prime Minister’s defeat, it’s become clear that these so-called solutions are fraught with difficulty.

While it has proven easy over the last 72 hours for opponents to criticise the Prime Minister’s plan, it’s been less easy to show how anything other might fly.

And there lies the problem. Parliament has made it clear that it is opposed to Theresa May’s detailed Withdrawal Agreement. But, despite claiming that her Agreement was a pig in a poke, it has so far failed to set out any plan at all as an alternative.

Take the so-called People’s vote, for example. Firstly, it currently does not appear to have majority support in the House of Commons.

Secondly, nobody seems to know how it would work. The SNP’s Brexit Secretary Mike Russell said yesterday that such a referendum would be a straight choice between the Prime Minister’s plan and Remain.

Yet SNP MSP Alex Neil - who voted Leave - made clear that wouldn’t be right. He doesn’t support the Prime Minister’s deal. So why, he asked, should he be asked to choose between two options he doesn’t support?

If the SNP can’t even agree among itself how a so-called People’s Vote should be run, what chance is there of getting everyone else to sign up?

And that’s before you get to the other questions of importance to Scotland of such a vote. Wouldn’t the SNP simply use such a vote to demand what they really want - a second referendum on independence? Would the SNP respect the result of such a referendum if, as last time, Britain voted to leave? I have my doubts.

Be careful what you wish for is a good maxim for Conservatives. Another is that the perfect is the enemy of the good. And the danger here is that in refusing to compromise, and in pursuing an ideal, too many parliamentarians of all colours risk tipping us towards a No Deal Brexit.

In my view, such a result would damage us all. And for those of us who care about the Union, it would also be a present for the SNP, handing them the chaos and instability they will seek to exploit to push for a second referendum on independence.

So - we return to the Prime Minister’s deal. Is it - or something quite close to it - still alive? I believe it is. Despite the defeat on Tuesday, it’s clear to me that opposition to her plan is a mile wide but only an inch thick. Many parliamentarians who voted against the deal on Tuesday have said that only a small number of issues - such as the Irish backstop - are blocking them from supporting it.

It remains to be seen whether any of those concerns will be met by the rest of the EU over the coming days, though I am sure the Prime Minister will try.

If she does, there remains the chance that, faced with the very real prospect of Brexit either being stopped, or watered down, those MPs change their minds.

I would certainly encourage them to do so. The search for a viable alternative to the Prime Minister’s deal is likely to prove a long one.

It does not mean one can’t be found - but we should be in no doubt that the compromises that have so far made her own deal unpalatable to many will be required there too.

The next few days are likely to be uncertain for us all. But if we are to deliver Brexit in keeping with the instructions of the British people, then it will require compromise, pragmatism and common sense from all.

Jackson Carlaw is interim leader of the Scottish Conservatives