Real Brexit still to be delivered; this is what Boris Johnson must do – Yorkshire Post Letters

Before the EU referendum, the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, posted out a totally ‘‘EU-biased’’ leaflet to every household in the United Kingdom (at a cost to UK taxpayers of £9m).

At the time I raised a petition to challenge why UK taxpayers’ money had been spent on such a one-sided leaflet.

It was one of the most successful petitions in Parliament at that time, and was subsequently debated by MPs – but little changed. At that stage we knew it would be a difficult road ahead to deliver on the vision so many had for a truly independent UK. Nothing prepared anyone for the level of vitriol and disregard Brexiteers would experience in the years since then.

Despite all this, we are now a country which is finally outside the EU, in possession of freedoms which have placed us in a prime position to recover from a global pandemic and on a path towards our global resurgence and a more prominent position on the global stage. The job is by no means done and dusted, but this must not overshadow the victories we have undoubtedly achieved so far.

As the director of Get Britain Out, I have been – and still am, along with my very small team – on the front line of the fight to deliver a Real Brexit every day.

The biggest success of Brexit so far – aside from our ability to conduct our own Covid-19 vaccine rollout strategy – has been the work of the Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss, and the push to secure our own free trade agreements.

Not only have we rolled over nearly all the trade agreements we were signed up to when we were members of the EU, we have already secured a unique deal with Australia and there are more on the way.

We are progressing in negotiations with the United States of America, South America and New Zealand, and our ascent to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – worth more than £9 trillion – is well on the way to success.

As I have said before, the work is by no means done and dusted. As much as Boris Johnson has supported Brexit, he has lost focus on what still needs to be done. He is content to sit back and let issues over Northern Ireland, fishing, procurement, citizen’s rights and other issues fall by the wayside. It is time he took action to properly resolve the outstanding issues which are allowing the EU to undermine the sovereignty of the whole of our United Kingdom.

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