So who are the winners?

THE Emperor has got a new suit of clothes and is claiming a great victory. But who are the winners in this Brexit deal?

Locally and with massive relief, the Nissan workers and all involved in the supply chain can be more confident, the catastrophic impact of a no-deal having been averted.

But with millions of parts arriving every week for Nissan and other car manufacturers through our ports the clouds have not fully lifted. The disruption we witnessed at Dover will become the new normal and could easily cause short-time working or massive lay-offs.

The irony is that we fought so hard to retain what we currently enjoy and we will have to abide by the level playing field or risk sanctions and tariffs. We are to be a rule taker.

On Friday, Britons will lose the freedom to live, work and trade in goods and services as they choose throughout the EU. Once-natural rights are to be torched.

Our goods exporters, previously able to treat Europe as their home market, will have their goods painstakingly checked and controlled at EU borders, and duties paid immediately. More than 200 million customs declarations costing £7bn will have to be filled in as lorries wait in new vast holding pens, risking disruption to vast swathes of industry and the importation of food and medicines.

We will need visas to stay in the EU beyond three months. Some 15,000 British students a year will lose the right to study with no fees in European universities. Britain is out of the European Investment Bank, which lent billions to depressed parts of the UK like the North East, and also out of Euratom, Europol and Eurojust.

We are out of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, crucial in the fight against climate change and fundamental to the economics of wind farms and nuclear power stations. We are to lose all automatic access to EU security database.

The North East was a huge beneficiary of EU investment in infrastructure, and also our local colleges benefited from grants and subsidies for students as it was classified as a disadvantaged region.

Will the levelling-up promises match the lost EU funding with even more on top? This will not be the case. The North East, like so many other regions will continue to languish and be neglected by a centralist elitist Government.

We have all watched with concern recent scenes from the M20 and Manston Airport in Kent. The lack of preparedness for this event and the neglect of basic welfare for the mostly international truckers is a stain on the reputation of the UK.

But often in a crisis it is human endeavours that we marvel at. It wasn’t local or central government who came to their rescue but local charities, especially the Sikh community, who provided more than 800 hot meals. Also poignant was the 30 Polish medics delivering 1,200 Covid-19 tests on Christmas Eve in Dover.

The UK remains at the heart of Europe and I hope we rejoin one day.

PETER BENSON