WELL what would you know, Barnier has rejected May’s Chequers plan that parliament went into a state of meltdown last week about. This is hardly a surprise.

Barnier has shown by his words and actions that he wants to screw Britain to the floor and leave us thoroughly punished for daring to question the EU Commission.

It’s clear that our interests do not lie with an unelected official or his acolytes, and that we should prepare to leave without a deal.

After some initial market turbulence, things will settle down and we will be much better off after the excellent work of the department for International Affairs led by the dedicated team under Liam Fox (travelled over 300,000 miles seeking deals with the 81 per cent rest of the world we do business with) and his superb Permanent Secretary, Antonia Romeo, who is creating a completely new trade negotiating capability for the first time in more than 40 years.

Yes, that’s how long we have left it to the archaic EU, who haven’t even got a trade deal with Australia after all that time.

Abi Jones Via email