With MPs working to overturn the referendum result, no deal is our best bet

I am convinced now that the best route to a good agricultural Brexit deal is via no deal.

The two years of the Article 50 period for negotiation, where this should have been fully discussed, has been dominated by our Parliament trying to dilute and delay the referendum result.

I believe we should leave on April 12 without further humiliation of our Prime Minister.

There will be a bumpy ride for a time.

Our sheep sector is the Achilles heel of an agri-Brexit because it is so dependent on exports to the EU.

Lost

However, for every £100 lost by our sheep farmers, about £400 is lost by EU fruit, vegetable and wine producers who are the other side of the same coin.*

They will not suffer in silence.

With the politics of Brexit out of the way, we can expect everyone to pull together to get a Common Market, which is what we thought we had signed up to in the first place when we joined in 1973.

Indeed, we are already seeing a microcosm of this with a recent announcement that medicines can pass each way without hassle.

In all commodities, production standards are fully aligned. This is quite achievable.

Glyphosate

My father enjoyed thick cut marmalade every day for breakfast throughout his adult life - except when fighting in WW2.

My father died of cancer. Thick cut marmalade is therefore ‘linked’ with cancer.

This appears to be the logic when someone does unfortunately succumb to cancer and, at some stage in their lives, had handled glyphosate.

Two court cases have now followed this logic, where the underlying sentiment is to give a large corporation a jolly good kicking.

The EU is on the verge of banning glyphosate. As most of us who have operated sprayers know, this is one of the least unpleasant materials that we handle.

War

If glyphosate goes, expect war to be declared on most other products.

I will be the first to agree I was gung ho and dismissive of safety concerns when I operated a sprayer 40 years ago using such products as Metasystox and Gramoxone.

Getting the job done was my priority.

I should have died of cancer at least twenty years ago. However, if nothing else, I have demonstrated there is a very large safety margin.

* The UK would apply no tariffs to fruit or vegetables from the EU in a no-deal Brexit, but EU sheepmeat tariffs of more than 40 per cent would apply to UK exports