David Davies exposed the lie at the heart of the slogan ‘Vote Tory and Get Brexit Done’ when interviewed by BBC Wales over the weekend.

He insisted that we still have to be prepared to walk away from the negotiations in order to get the deal we want. So, there you have it, there is no oven ready deal to sign that gets Brexit done. After the end of January there is still more to do.

With regard to our future relationship he claims that “anyone who’s done any kind of negotiating knows you cannot negotiate anything unless you are prepared to walk away.”

Sadly, for David and the rest of us the negotiations about our future relationship are not standard. If you are buying say a car or even talking about a trade deal from scratch and you walk away without agreement you maintain the status quo. Nothing gained and nothing lost. If having left the EU at the end of January, we walk away at the end of 2020 we don’t retain transitional arrangements but have to trade on WTO terms. A situation that David’s own government’s analysis, which they are reluctant to share with you, (I wonder why) says will lead to significant costs and disruption to trade.

Our future trading relationships with the EU and the rest of the world are the most important Brexit decisions we have to make. Get them wrong and it will be very costly. We have not even begun to have any discussions about what we want to gain and what we are prepared to offer.

If you think we can pass the withdrawal bill and move on I am afraid you are in for a nasty shock.

Paul Macer-Wright (Monmouth)