Boris Johnson’s Brexit vision is built on lower standards of environmental, consumer and worker protection

Editorial: One of the worst arguments for leaving the European Union is that we would be free to strike trade deals with exciting new markets that we would not be able to negotiate as a member

There are good arguments for leaving the European Union. We need not go into them here, because The Independent’s view is that they are outweighed by the benefits of staying.

But there are also bad arguments for leaving the EU, and one of the worst is that we would be free to strike trade deals with exciting new markets that we would not be able to negotiate while being held back by the bureaucratic colossus of Brussels.

This has never been remotely plausible. As we report, the government is trying to strip out protection of food standards in post-Brexit trade laws, which gives the game away. The only trade deals the UK could do on its own that it could not do as part of the EU would involve lowering our standards.