This is the one thing Jeremy Corbyn could do to win back my vote

I struggle to imagine a more depressing spectacle than the proposed TV debate between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn over the prime minister’s dismal Brexit deal.

Assuming it happens, not only will it pit two people who reluctantly voted Remain before boarding (or reboarding, in Corbyn’s case), the big red Brexit bus, both of them will, based on their current positions, be peddling lies.

May will say hers is a good deal and reflects the “will of the people”. Trouble is her own government’s analysis says it will make all of us poorer and if walking out the door were a sporting event her ministers would be world champions. That latest to resign, Sam Gyimah, urged her not to rule out another referendum if she loses the parliamentary vote (which she will), but she adamantly refuses to give her country a Final Say.

So, in effect, she’ll be flipping off “the British people” she’s always banging on about.

Corbyn’s position, such as it is, is arguably more mendacious still.

Donald Tusk made clear on Friday that there isn’t a better deal to be had than May’s, short of remaining in the EU. If Corbyn tries to claim that Labour could go back to Brussels to achieve the benefits of membership of the customs union and the single market without the obligations that come with that, as he has before, he will be peddling the sort of story that George RR Martin’s publisher would reject as just too wild for even the most die-hard of fantasy fans to buy into were he to pitch it.

He’ll be saying Britain can have its cake and eat it, putting him in the same camp as the man who once called him a mugwump; the greatest confidence trickster in British politics, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

To have to say that of a Labour leader is so painful it almost has me in tears.

But what if Corbyn were to spring a surprise? What if he were to say something like this: “I recognise that what was sold during the referendum by the Leave campaign, and what we actually have on the table, are vastly different.

“The Labour Party, by contrast to the Tories, believes in democracy and stands willing to put the country’s interests first. That being the case I’m prepared to support going back to the people to ask them whether this is really what they want, while giving them an option to remain in the EU.

“In saying this, I’ve listened to the majority of Labour members who elected me as leader, and I’ve taken the temperature of the country. The Labour Party is for the many, not just the handful of casino capitalists who fund the Conservative Party and are trying to make money out of this.

“We believe that the many should have the final say over what’s on offer.”

Now just imagine the reaction of the audience to that. It would be electric. It would turn what is shaping up to be an all but unwatchable shitshow into must see TV. It would have May scrambling for her notes in a panic.

Imagine the reaction among Labour’s supporters too. They’d have a reason to start singing “Oooh Jeremy Corbyn” again. It would light a fire under those sections of the party that have become deeply disillusioned with the way Labour has played the role of midwife to May’s hard Brexit.

That’s what I want to hear from Corbyn, that or at least a variant on it.

If he continues to vacillate and we ultimately end up with May’s deal, or god forbid, the disaster of a no deal that will deliver a devastating blow to the poorest of this country, and put the lives of people like me (I have type 1 diabetes and depend on regular injection so of imported insulin) at risk, then I don’t think I’ll be alone in joining the growing corps of people who are done with the Labour.

Corbyn wants to be prime minister. He hopes that a rejection of May’s deal will lead to chaos and a general election. If that chaos tips his country of a cliff and kicks his people in the teeth, he won’t deserve to win it. He’ll be every bit as guilty as May and her wretched party.

The flip side is that if he does the right thing by the British people, and offers a Final Say, it could ultimately hand him the set of keys he’s after.