Leave.EU co-founder Arron Banks looks to the future in a column for today’s edition of the Sunday Express.

Parliament finally passed the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill by a majority of 128 on Friday and the UK will leave on January 31.

We will once again be a proud independent nation. The vote marks the end of one of the longest-running political campaigns in British history that started with Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum party and ended with the election of Boris Johnson’s new Conservative Party.

We have witnessed a shameful period in politics in which Remain MPs sought to overturn a democratic vote for the first time. The 17.4 million people who had the guts to vote for Brexit have been denigrated. They had no choice but to suck it up until the general election.

Virtually all of the extreme Remainers in Parliament got the order of the boot. MPs such as Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve were rejected and I couldn’t be happier.      

The bitter moment came as Zac Goldsmith lost his seat in Richmond Park.

His visionary father Sir James founded the Referendum Party with the sole policy of gaining a referendum on EU membership. Zac, a principled Brexiteer, was in one of the most Remain-leaning seats in the country.

I am no fan of the House of Lords but I cheered on the decision to make him Lord Goldsmith and carry on his job as an environment minister.

Leave.EU took the position that it was better to back Boris’s improved withdrawal deal and then win a large Conservative majority to work on the future trading arrangement part of the deal with the EU from a position of strength. Boris now has an 80-seat majority and I fully expect him to deliver a free trade deal and for the UK to leave on equitable, friendly terms before the end of 2020. I expect rapid progress on a US trade deal and others.

The Conservative party now represents communities across the country long forgotten by SW1. We need policies that benefit the ordinary working people and the radical reshaping of the vested interests that hold us back.

Leave.EU have a number of targets and you can be sure we know how to deploy power and our 1.5 million online followers.

Watch this space…

Have a wonderful Christmas,

The Leave.EU Team