Gordon Brown has called for Britain’s Brexit deadline to be extended by a year, as he warned the country is now “more divided” than at the time of Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax.

The former PM said MPs should force the Government to extend Article 50 and then give the public the final say on a renegotiated Brexit deal.

Speaking in Edinburgh on Thursday evening, Mr Brown condemned the “paralysed and immobilised” Parliament in Westminster and said there is rising anger from the public who want to be involved in the decision-making process.

Mr Brown warned: “It is the lethal combination of a deadlocked Parliament, an ever-more divided country, and the mounting distrust between Parliament and people that makes me fear for our cohesion.”

He claimed the aftermath of the referendum had further eroded trust in the political system, and said: “The UK’s deadlock has led to the degradation of our public discourse.

“It is so toxic that accusations from both sides of betrayal and even treason are now a stock in trade of our public square – claims of bad faith from which it will take years to recover.

“Britain is already more divided than during the three-day week of the 1970s or during the miners’ strike of the 1980s.

“We are more divided than over the poll tax, whose troubles came to a head in the early 1990s.”

Citing a poll commissioned for Hope Not Hate that suggested two-thirds of people want to be involved in the decision-making process of Brexit, he said: “Our crisis is now so profound that Parliament cannot now solve it on its own.

Gordon Brown
Mr Brown said unity cannot be restored until the breakdown of trust has been repaired (PA)

“Indeed what’s clear is that we cannot reunite the country just by another attempted Westminster face-saving fix concocted behind closed doors.

“We cannot rebuild unity without repairing the breakdown of trust across the country, and we cannot move forward without involving the people as well as the politicians.

“The people of Britain must be brought back into this debate.”

Although there is “no quick fix” to the political deadlock, Mr Brown said he believes the EU would be willing to extend Article 50 to allow the public to be consulted on the next steps.

He said he has taken “soundings” from Europe, and added: “As someone who spent years in government negotiating with them, I feel confident they would accept.

“And then, if it is established that the situation has changed, give the British people the right to the final say.”