Let’s do some arithmetic, Mrs May.

Over 80% of our economy is Business to Business within the UK.  So that makes our overseas trade worth a max of 20% of our total trade.    

Now, not all of that 20% overseas is with the EU.  Indeed only 35% of that 20% of trade is with the EU.  So, do the arithmetic,  65% of our overseas trade is actually out with the EU.

That means that out of all the trade we do in the UK and beyond these shores, only 7% of our total trade is actually with the EU.      

I know this a simplistic way of looking at it.  And I know there are different ways of measuring what exactly is trade.  Any yes, you may come up with a few percentage point s of a difference.  

You could, for example, argue that some of our components come from the EU.  That’s true.   But the inescapable truth is we actually don’t need the EU as much as Remainers keep telling us we do.     

Quite why Mrs May then says today in her speech that it is up to the EU to come up with a counter offer to Chequers, I have no idea.  

All it can mean is she is still looking to negotiate even more away even though, as your simple arithmetic will have demonstrated in these last few seconds, we don’t need to negotiate.  We don’t need to give anything away.