Nine months have passed since the UK government triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, formally starting the march towards Brexit. As we are about to embark on phase two of the negotiations, including crucially the nature of the future UK-EU relationship, there are many reasons to be concerned.

Inexorably and depressingly, the prospect for a hard Brexit, with a bad trade deal or no deal, continues to be likely as the UK government grapples with the complexities of negotiating with the remaining EU 27. The UK’s negotiation “red lines” will exclude us from the European single market and customs union.

Over the past several months I and many other commentators have warned that membership of the single market is vital to the economic future