European Movement UK Vice-President Joyce Quin writes about the problems facing companies in north-east England that export to the EU and are facing ruin under the Brexit deal…

The worst Christmas present ever?

Boris Johnson hailed his Brexit deal, announced on Christmas Eve, as “glad tidings” and went on to claim that it would allow companies “to do even more business with our European friends”. He also claimed, astonishingly, that the deal would mean no non-tariff barriers. Did the prime minister in claiming this know he was telling a lie or did he simply not understand the details of the deal he had put his signature to? Whichever is the case there is no doubt that the reality of the deal for so many of our exporters – and for our economy in general – has proved a cruel deception, involving loss of orders, delays in delivering goods and extra costs which in some cases are proving prohibitive and are threatening the viability of the companies in question.

Read more.