Today exceeded my expectations John.

That's because in the King's Speech, where the Government lays out its agenda and plans for the future of our country, a whole bunch of proposals that will fix some of the biggest problems Britain faces after Brexit were announced.

Among the headlines about renationalising the railways and building the homes our country desperately needs was the announcement of a new law which will allow the UK to align with EU standards and regulations wherever it makes sense to do so.

Having different rules to our EU partners for the sake of it creates huge problems for our businesses who try to sell good and services across Europe.

Aligning where it makes sense is great news for our economy, for businesses of all sizes and for our future relationship with the EU, and it tells investors that we want to have the closest possible relationship with our trading partners after years of antagonism and rhetoric that has kept them at arms length until now.

But I'd also like to tell you why it matters so much to me John.

As well as appearing in the King's Speech, this policy was on page one of the huge report that Best for Britain's Trade and Business Commission released last year after over 18 months of extensive work speaking to business owners, trade experts and industry leaders about the problems Britain faces after Brexit.

When the UK left the EU four years ago, those of us who campaigned so hard to keep us in had to ask ourselves whether we should step aside and let the hard Brexiteers take control whilst we complained from the sidelines, or whether we should fight to ensure that the UK retained the closest possible relationship with our neighbours.

We knew this wouldn't be easy with the government we had, which is why we set about doing the hard work of listening extensively to the needs of communities and business about how Brexit was specifically impacting them whilst at the same time working to ensure that, when the chance came about, we were ready to kick the Brexit governments into the long grass.

As well as preparing the biggest tactical voting campaign yet, we spent over a year speaking to prospective new MPs about our plans and policy recommendations so that, when the time came, we had the support of a new Parliament to start fixing the problems Brexit has created for the countless people and businesses we spoke to.

Today our work has paid off. 

We're very aware that proposals only become policy when they’re written into law, and today's announcements in the King’s Speech are just a handful of the 114 recommendations we've made to our political leaders if they really want to fix the mess that Brexit has left us. 

There is still much left to do, but it's a positive validation of the work we've done until now and the weight of support that Best for Britain's work has in Parliament that we have ticked off such a big item already - and that’s only possible because of your support!

Thank you for being on this journey.

Best wishes,

Tom Brufatto
Director of Policy and Research
Best for Britain