Prospect cannot support this deal because it does not meet our tests for a good Brexit deal in a number of ways.

• The government’s own assessment of the economic impact of its plan shows that this would be an economic downgrade, harming workers and reducing the UK’S ability to properly fund public services.
• The deal opens the door to a potential weakening of vital employment protections in the future, with enforcement mechanisms simply too weak to ensure that UK workers’ rights do not fall behind our EU neighbours.
• The deal gives no guarantees about the future economic relationship between the UK and the EU.

There is no detail on how we will trade in the future, what the future migration regime will be or whether, and on what terms, the UK will be able to maintain membership of vital European agencies or science funding programmes.

The full extent of the negative implications of this deal for our members is still becoming clear.

In recent days we have had confirmation that the UK will no longer be part of the multi-billion pound Galileo satellite programme, which has implications for UK science and security.

In areas like chemical regulation, we now know that our members will be unable to fulfil certain regulatory functions during the transition period and potentially beyond.

Prospect’s policy on Brexit was set by our members at national conference. It states that Prospect should:

• campaign to ensure the rights and interests of Prospect members are expressed to government and policy makers whilst the Brexit negotiations are taking place
• produce guidance for members on the terms of the EU exit deal once it is published
• argue that the public should be given a say on the results of the negotiations and to ensure a democratic stamp of approval on the final outcome – deal or no deal
• if the government’s proposed final outcome is rejected, Prospect should argue for an extension of the transitional arrangements to ensure new negotiations or a return to the status quo before the Brexit vote.

We will contact all members after the result of the vote on 11 December.