The Brexit deal is another example of Boris Johnson over promising and under delivering.

This deal is a miserable failure after four long years of Conservative negotiations.

It is better than the alternative of no deal at all – but securing the lesser of two evils is no cause for hope.

This is the first trade deal in history with the express plan of making it harder to trade. It does not deliver a deal on services, which make up 80 per cent of our economy, so will limit access for Hertfordshire businesses to vital EU markets.

We will be shut outside the Customs Union, with more burdensome customs checks and red tape for our exporters and supply chains. We are outside the world’s largest single market.

And I warn such a useless deal means we will be back at the negotiating table in no time at all, because no sane country would want to go on like this.

Alex Mayer,

Former MEP, East of England