Mayflower spirit is still here... to leave!

THE US ambassador to the UK, Robert Johnson, has just visited the South West to commemorate the sailing of the Mayflower.

He looked forward to a ‘pioneering US-UK free trade agreement’. But what does that actually mean for the UK? In March 2018, a Government report was published showing that a US-UK deal would benefit the UK’s GDP by only 0.2 per cent.

Robert Johnson has previously stated that the NHS should be on the table in future trade talks. He has further stated that the US would want to export agricultural produce to the UK, which inevitably would include chlorinated chicken, hormone-fed beef and foods containing banned pesticides.

The president of the NFU, Minette Batters, has said that “would just put British producers out of business”. The Government recently defeated an amendment to the Agriculture

Bill designed to protect our farmers by preventing the importation of cheap sub-standard produce.

With the Government’s Internal Market Bill putting at risk the

Irish Good Friday Agreement, the Democrats in Congress have threatened not to sanction a US-UK trade deal, forcing Dominic Raab to scuttle over to the United States to try to save the negotiations.

Robert Johnson said on his visit that the spirit of the Mayflower was still here. He was correct; with the chaos being caused by this government one can only sympathise with those who just got on a boat and left.

Mike Baldwin Thorverton, Devon