Dear John,

The government has made a massive concession.

Thanks to pressure from supporters like you, the government will drop law-breaking clauses from the Internal Market Bill.

Michael Gove has agreed to “in principle” respect the Northern Ireland Protocol, an agreement his government signed less than a year ago.

Since September, we have campaigned on this issue, sending thousands of messages to MPs and peers. Thanks to your efforts, the Good Friday Agreement will not be broken, and peace in Ireland will be protected.

Now we can only hope this signals the UK is serious about reaching a trade deal.

Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels in the coming days to finalise trade talks. He has ruled out continued negotiation in 2021. It’s now or never. 

Write to the prime minister, and tell him to finish what he started. Northern Ireland will still be faced with massive disruption if we leave without a deal in place. Tell Boris Johnson to continue to make real concessions while he’s in Brussels.

This is a most welcome climbdown from the government. It seems the massive backlash from former Conservative Party leaders, diplomats and activists like you, finally got through to them.

This is good news also for our relationship with the new Biden administration.

The government also promised not to introduce any law-breaking legislation to the Taxation Bill, which concerns the UK’s new customs arrangements outside the single market.

Yet many on the international stage may never forget the way the UK has acted. Undermining international trust as a negotiation tactic is short-sighted and reckless in the extreme. It certainly makes the government’s current claims of EU intransigence unconvincing.

Write to the Prime Minister, and tell him to salvage any agreement he can, whatever it takes.

Best for Britain have been fighting for a comprehensive trade deal with Europe nearly all year.

The paltry deal now being pursued by the government is a far-cry from what the UK needs to recover. It is unrecognisably lesser than what the architects of Brexit claimed it would be.

And yet still we are facing the prospect of a no-deal, something those same instigated said would be an impossibility. The success we’ve seen today cannot be lost and political leaders on both sides must now work together to build on this good work.

Best wishes,

Cary Mitchell,
Director of Operations, Best for Britain