Back in the Eighties, as trade secretary preparing for the next trade round, I flew to the European Commission in Brussels to meet the trade commissioner and other ministers. We went through his agenda, commodity by commodity. Every time one trade minister said one thing, another disagreed and I cannot recall we agreed on anything; no one went away happy. That’s when I became a Eurosceptic, for I realised that as long as we were members we would never have a trade agreement that suited us.

The Eighties showed that a government led by a prime minister prepared to take tough decisions and plan for the long term will succeed. Under Theresa May’s leadership we must raise our game, take equally tough decisions and transform