Catherine Stihler: No-deal Brexit will blight Britain for decades

Dominic Raab. Picture: BBC

Well that’s a relief.

But slower and costlier credit card payments when we buy EU products on our holidays or online? Yes, there’s that.

And British citizens living abroad could lose access to their bank accounts, while expats who have lived and worked in Europe could face losing access to their pensions.

An extra six weeks of medicines are being stockpiled, but the Brexit Secretary couldn’t provide an assurance that patients won’t be affected by a hard Brexit.

There will be more red tape for UK firms trading with the EU, with tariffs imposed on British goods, and a nine-month wait for organic farmers to sell their produce into their biggest market.

And, of course, there are still no answers about cross-border arrangements.

We are just over 200 days away from an unmitigated disaster, and this ‘no deal’ scenario looks more likely by the hour.

Make no mistake about who is to blame here. This is not due to intransigence in Brussels – it is due to utter incompetence from the Tories.

In the EU referendum, Brexiteers like Boris Johnson made promises they knew they couldn’t keep, and nobody voted for this disastrous offer that Mr Raab outlined today.

Since the referendum result was announced, the Tories have made a catastrophic and unforgiveable mess of the process. Enough is enough.

It’s time for the voters of the UK to have their say on the Brexit deal in a People’s Vote.

Now that the impact of a hard Brexit is clear, which would affect us for generations to come, we all have the right to decide if this is really what we want for our country.

Catherine Stihler is a Labour MEP for Scotland