The impact of the coronavirus pandemic it is becoming increasingly clear will mean the most tumultuous peacetime year in UK living memory. As the Prime Minister said, many families will lose loved ones before their time, and most of us will be asked to self-isolate at least once in the coming months. We are seeing widespread disruption to daily life, through office and university closures and travel restrictions, with more- including school closures - likely to follow. Football has been suspended for the first time since the outbreak of the second world war.

The Prime Minister has made it entirely clear that this is not business as usual for the country. As well as the health and social impacts, we also face the near certainty of a recession, as services businesses in particular struggle with the sharp fall in demand. Public services will be at full stretch, most obviously the NHS, but local and national authorities alike, with particular demands for information and reassurance. Meanwhile, businesses will also be at full stretch.

In this scenario it is simply irresponsible for government to fail to take their own advice and claim business as usual with regard to Brexit. It was already challenging to complete a trade deal in record time, restructure huge amounts of the UK regulatory system, and create a new trading relationship with both Northern Ireland and the EU to be ready for January 1 2021,