Dear Prime Minister,We will now, it is clear, leave the EU. Those who did not want this have lost. I understand you believe this to be in the national interest and that you have a democratic mandate for it. But I hope you can understand that for me, and my fellow signatories, it will involve a profound wrench. We will experience it as the loss of an important part of our identity.

So I write to ask you, respectfully, to take up an initiative your predecessor declined to support in your negotiations on our future relationship with the EU. The initiative is for a form of Associate Citizenship – for those who want it. It will not hinder your negotiations but it would be a hugely significant olive branch to us.

For you to take up the initiative would be the act of a statesman, it is precisely what bringing the country together looks like.

With kind regards,

Jolyon Maugham QC, and the following signatories.