NOTHING better sums up the wretched situation this country has got itself into over Brexit than the sight of sick MPs being wheeled into the Commons for yet another "crucial" vote on leaving the EU.

Bradford West MP Naz Shah had to literally get off her sick bed and go to the Commons to vote in person because Tory whips refused to honour the protocol that MPs who are ill can be nodded through.

Television pictures of Ms Shah being wheeled into the Commons with the help of a parliamentary colleague, carrying a sick bucket on her knees and pumped full of painkilling drugs, were as shameful as they were shocking.

Parliament has seen nothing like this since the 1970s when poorly MPs were regularly pressed into service to prop up a Government on a knife-edge.

Ms Shah said later that she had discharged herself against doctor's advice and was going straight back to hospital.

Regardless of how important the Government thought this vote was surely there was no need for this?

We totally agree with her colleague Dawn Butler who described the situation as “inhumane”.

Most right-thinking people will agree with John Prescott's view that it was “absolutely bloody shameful”.