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Writing in the i newspaper, Nick Clegg says that any chance of Soft Brexit has been killed off by Theresa May. Instead, MPs will be faced with the choice of a hard Brexit or no Brexit.

Nick Clegg hits the nail on the head when he describes how modern cross-border supply chains will be destroyed by a hard Brexit:

It cannot be said enough: the Brexit this Government is determined to impose on this country cannot under any circumstances avoid the introduction of extensive new barriers, costs and frictions to trade with our largest trading partners.

There is something morbidly fascinating about the spectacle of Conservatives spouting the language of free-trade whilst overseeing the greatest retreat from open markets embarked upon by any party in the post-war period.

And, boy, it will come as a shattering shock to UK businesses when they realise what this means in practice: new lorry parks near the Kent ports; new checks to work out which tariffs should apply to each product; phytosanitary and veterinary checks on livestock and agricultural products; according to the Institute for Government, every single trader exporting to the EU could end up having “to complete a Single Administrative Document (SAD) and an Entry Summary (ES). The SAD consists of eight parts with 54 boxes which must be completed and submitted for every declaration.” And this excludes insurance certificates and other product-specific documentation. With each declaration costing between £20 and £45, the IFG reckons the additional annual cost could amount to £9bn per year.

Integrated supply chains will be destroyed. The fuel injectors assembled by the US automobile component manufacturer, Delphi, at its UK plant in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, illustrate the point perfectly. The injectors are made from steel from Europe which is machined in the UK before going to Germany for special heat treatment before returning to the UK for assembly. They will have crossed the channel five times before they are inserted into a lorry and sold to a customer. This seamless, cross border assembly line will be slowed and eventually suffocated by the multiple bureaucratic incursions courtesy of the Brexiteer’s new “customs arrangements”.