Grantham and Stamford MP Nick Boles's decision to quit the Tory party last night has sparked an incredible and weird mix of disgust, contempt, indignation, surprise, celebration, sadness and relief – in his constituency as well as wider afield.

To some conservatives and hard Brexiteers, he's a quitter, a wimp. Good riddance, they say. To others, he should be hailed as a principled man; one who tried unsuccessfully to find a solution to the complex and bitter Brexit feud that is splitting the nation. Then fell on his sword when he failed.

Boles resigned on Monday night – not as an MP – simply as a member of the Conservative Party. "I am resigning the Conservative whip with immediate effect," he said. "The Conservative Party has shown itself to be incapable of compromise, so I will sit as an Independent Progressive Conservative."

The Grantham and Stamford MP resigned after the failure of his own motion to stay in the single market.

The "Norway-plus" proposal would have seen the UK join the European Free Trade Area (Efta) and regain membership of the EU single market. The government would then have been duty-bound to negotiate a customs arrangement to avoid border checks in Northern Ireland.

His cross-party Common Market 2.0 plan – a Norwegian model of Brexit – proposed membership of the EU single market as well as a customs arrangement with it. It was defeated by 282 votes to 261 in the House of Commons on Monday.

But the defeat was a catastrophic blow and left Boles with nowhere to go.

In the Brexit referendum, Grantham and Stamford's constituents voted 61% to leave the EU.

In the past months and weeks, despite being a Remainer, he has repeatedly and consistently backed Theresa May's Brexit deal proposals. But she has failed to gain approval from parliament, thereby failing Grantham and Stamford.

So, following months of failed negotiations by the Prime Minster to secure a Brexit deal with the EU that the House of Commons would agree, his proposal was his own personal last throw of the dice to deliver, in some way, what his constituency – and his country - asked for.

But if the leader of his own party couldn't secure Brexit for Britain (which his constituents had voted for); if other MPs within his own party refused to back Brexit (going against the views of his constituents); and if he couldn't get support for a 'Brexit lite' proposal that would at least deliver some form of an exit (if only one that was marginally better than crashing out with No Deal)…what else could he do but resign from his party?

Boles' motion probably came to the table too late. Given the months of acrimonious Brexit debate that have taken place, for hard Brexiteers the idea was now too flaccid, even though it came close to what many of them wanted before the referendum.

The gathering momentum of the People's Vote campaign also did for it. For any Remain-supporting MP who smells the faintest whiff of a possibility of another referendum, backing Boles' new leave motion was never likely.

So, what next? Boles has said he will sit as a "independent progressive conservative" MP rather than join the recent breakaway Independent Group of MPs (now asking to become the Change UK party).

But having just been part of a quartet of Tory and Labour MPs who had worked for months on the common market 2.0 plan – and he admitted to enjoying working in a cross-party environment – I wouldn't rule it out completely. If not immediately on the horizon, it must come into view at some point.

His own former Conservative colleagues Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen recently quit to campaign for a second referendum as part of the Independent Group alongside ex-Labour MPs Luciana Berger, Ann Coffey, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Joan Ryan, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith and Chuka Umanna.

Boles' own beliefs now clash with the party whose manifesto he endorsed and promoted at the last election. And they are at odds with his local Conservative Association, which he quit last month.

So, if he wishes to remain in Westminster, surely the lure of a being part of Change UK, which could completely and drastically alter the political dynamics of the UK in the coming months, will prove too strong to ignore.

It is highly likely after the Brexit debacle – where no political party has covered itself in glory - that the next and inevitable General Election will see a plethora of 'independent' MPs campaigning.

For Boles, wherever he chooses to stand for election, if indeed he does stand, does he really have the will to be a lone voice in the winds of change?

• John Kelly is an award-winning journalist, owner of Stamford-based PR company Snap!Media and a contributor to Nub News Ltd.