'Despite all the obstacles Brexit created for traders, the UK remained the EU's top export market, along with the US and China'

Whether or not his ego secures him a return to Parliament in the future, the current Boris Johnson era in politics is over.

He will remain a thorn in the side of the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party, because of his lifelong inability to admit he may have been in the wrong and accept that privilege is not an indemnity against punishment.

Whatever happens next in the Johnson era, history will not judge him well. He was a victim of circumstances over Covid, but his fundamental mistake was pursuing Brexit for his own selfish ends, without any plan of what to do if it happened.

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The UK cut itself adrift from its biggest market with no realistic Plan B and farming was one of the industries that paid a heavy price

When many farmers voted for Brexit, particularly in England, they had been sold the line that it would end red tape and allow agriculture to set off in a different, more global direction. Just like the lies about extra money for the NHS on the Brexit battle-bus, issues avoided were around funding for agriculture from future UK governments and the loss of political power for farming when the UK left the EU.

That lack of influence at Westminster is now painfully evident. The power it had in the past came from being part of a wider European lobby that secured legislation in Brussels that had to be implemented in the UK. As to funding that is now less certain that it ever was in the close to 50 years agriculture here was part of the CAP.

The EU this week agreed a close to £50bn budget for farming in 2024, which will protect the future of direct payments and ensure environmental and rural development delivery. There was no real debate in the EU about the justification of support to agriculture continuing.

That is not the case in the UK where agriculture is now only of interest to both Conservatives and Labour if support can be sold as a way to deliver green policies. Food security remains a political issue in the EU, but not here where policy remains focussed on importing cheap food.

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In short, it may be flawed, but the EU has a policy for food, agriculture and greening and has backed that by retaining its share of the EU budget. Post Johnson's Brexit, farmers here have no policy for agriculture, no interest at Westminster in food security and no certainty about future funding.

This reflects the Brexit he delivered. That was never around any vision he ever had of a post-Brexit UK, but because Johnson saw it as a vehicle to deliver his own ambitions of being Prime Minister – which he inevitably messed up.

Ultimately, all he did was prove that it was indeed impossible to 'fool all of the people all of the time'.

With very weak economic growth for the UK in April, after a drop in March, built around more people eating out, Brexit certainly had not delivered the economic boom promised when the dead hand of the EU was removed.

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In food and farming, success had been achieved through hard work and quality rather than as a result of Brexit. Indeed, it is very much a case of business as usual, with our major markets in the EU largely the same, but with more red tape.

In the latest trade figures for the EU, it had strengthened its role as the world's biggest trader in food and farming products. Exports rebounded in February after some difficult months for the global economy and the EU had a healthy balance of trade gap between imports and exports in February of close to £5bn.

The EU delivered on commitments to provide an export market for Ukraine and it is again a major supplier of cereals and oilseeds into the EU. Despite all the obstacles Brexit created for traders, the UK remained the EU's top export market, along with the US and China.

The UK is the second biggest source of imports to the EU, after Ukraine, and followed by Brazil as Europe's major source of soya. These trade statistics are a key reason the case could be made for maintaining support for the CAP in the latest EU budget – they are, quite simply, proof of a sound economic return on that investment.