With one year to go until we leave the European Union, the progress we have achieved in the negotiations so far should give us confidence in our direction.

During the week Michel Barnier and I completed talks on some of the most important issues relating to our exit, publishing a 129-page draft Withdrawal Agreement.

The document represents months’ worth of discussions that will underpin the terms of how the UK leaves the European Union, and the start of a new partnership between us.

But more than that, it is another step towards delivering the result of the referendum, and achieving Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Negotiating such a seismic change was never going to be easy, and so that has proved. But the fact that three-quarters of the text is now locked down and agreed shows how far the UK and the EU have come.