Tory MP Steve Baker insisted environmental and animal welfare standards would not drop in future trade talks. He argued there had been “huge scaremongering” on the issue and said the fears were nonsense. While on BBC’s Politics Live the Tory MP said after Brexit the UK would remain a high standards nation on the global stage.

He said: “The main restriction is we need to keep up with the public’s demand for high welfare standards for animal and high environmental standards.

“The idea that this will slip is really for the birds.

“There has been huge scaremongering on this.

“The issue here is not about environmental standards, the issue here is about making sure we deal with both dealing with tariff and non-tariff barriers to getting on with free trade with the USA to set a new standard for the world.

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“But we are going to be a self-governing country and there is no question of us being anything other than a high standards nation.”

The Labour MP Anneliese Dodds admitted she was not satisfied with Mr Baker’s answer.

She said: “I don’t just look at the rhetoric but I look at what Conservative Governments have done in the past.

“People may remember the big negotiation that there was between the EU and the US for the so-called TTIP trade deal.

“At that time the UK Government had the chance to say that it would have those red lines written into that trade deal around the NHS but they decided not to do that.

“A lot of other countries did and they exempted their public services from that kind of a deal but the UK Government was not willing to do that.

“So I have to say I am judging the Conservatives on what they have done before.

“If they have changed tact, that is reassuring but I want to see it in black and white.”

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Brexit day is just 18 away but there are a number of obstacles left in Boris Johnson’s path before the UK can leave the European Union on January 31.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) must now gain the approval of the House of Lords.

After passing its first reading in the Commons, the second reading of the bill in the upper house begins today.

This ultimately shows the UK taking one more step closer to officially leaving the European Union.

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