THURSDAY June 23 2016 seems an awful long time ago. Back then, my constituents voted to leave the EU, the Bradford District voted to leave, Yorkshire voted to leave, England vote to leave and, crucially, the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU.

As someone who has campaigned to leave the EU since first being elected in 2005 – including launching the Better Off Out in the House of Commons in April 2006 – it goes without saying that I was delighted.

Once free from the restrictions and constraints that Brussels has imposed upon us, I truly believe that Britain will be a success on the global stage. The EU is a declining part of the world’s economy. We built our wealth in this country by being global traders, and it is vital we can develop better trade links with the growing part of the world’s economy, rather than being shackled to an EU protection racket; designed to prop up failing EU businesses and French farmers.

The 2016 referendum had provided us with one of the most exciting opportunities of a lifetime, and Theresa May’s deal has simply wasted it.

I, like many who voted to leave, am incredibly frustrated by how unnecessarily complicated this has become; and the lack of belief in how great our country can be standing independently is quite frankly astounding.

A tactical negotiator would have said that, as the fifth-largest economy in the world and a core market for European trade, the EU would make a grave mistake if they pushed Britain too far. A resolute leader would have ensured that those who voted remain did not manipulate parliamentary sovereignty to hinder Brexit, and a competent Prime Minister would deliver on a promise that is a true reflection of the people asked for.

The current deal makes a mockery of this, causing people to, quite rightly, question democracy in this country. In her Lancaster House speech the Prime Minister stated the she did not want “anything that leaves us half-in, half-out”, further adding that she “did no meant that we will seek some form of unlimited transitional status, in which we find ourselves stuck forever in some kind of permanent political purgatory.”

Yet purgatory is what seemingly is on the menu, something caused, I believe, by having somebody who supported remain in the referendum in charge of the negotiations.

The Prime Minister used to say that Brexit means taking back control. Control of our borders, laws, money and trade policy. She also said “no deal is better than a bad deal”. I agree, and still do.

It now seems that the Prime Minister now disagrees with herself and now believes that any deal is better than no deal.

In the general election last year we told the voters that we would be leaving the single market – meaning we could stop payments to the EU, stop unlimited immigration from the EU, and control our own laws – so that we can negotiate our own trade deals around the world.

The deal the Prime Minister now advocates ties us to a customs union with the EU and ensures Northern Ireland has to remain in the single market, in a backstop agreement that we cannot decide to leave ourselves. We would have to get permission from the EU. It would be easier to leave the EU than to leave this new arrangement. This is not taking back control, it is instead giving up all control.

In this deal we would also be giving the EU £39bn (which the Attorney General has admitted the EU could never legally obtain from us) in return for nothing. We are not even guaranteed a free trade agreement from the EU in return. Who on earth would hand over £39bn - which would be much better spent at home on more police and our schools – for precisely nothing in return.

There are many in Parliament who want to overturn the result of the referendum. It is Parliament vs The People, and I am on the side of the people. Unlike the Prime Minister I will be voting to keep the promises I made to the voters at the last General Election and therefore will vote against this deal.

In my opinion, the negotiation tactics used to get us to this point was to simply ask the EU what they would accept. It is not a negotiation, it is a capitulation.

The negotiations and the deal presented are the epitome of why we are better off out of the EU. They demonstrate the reality all along that our relationship with the EU is based on the EU taking exactly what they want, and remaining ignorant to what really matters to individual countries.

l Philip Davies is the MP for Shipley and a long-standing critic of the Government’s handling of Brexit.