We are all confused about Brexit – and that includes politicians. 

Before the referendum, those advocating Brexit told us it was a vote to get away from EU regulations. Now, we have the Defra Secretary, Michael Gove, assuring people there will be no move away from EU environment regulations. 

He has confirmed, for example, that the ban on neoniconoids will continue – and presumably the same will apply to the steady attack by the European Commission on plant protection products.

Nothing has yet been said about new EU regulations, but if we want to continue accessing the EU-27 market with farm products, it is inevitable we will have to match or exceed their standards. 

This is a far cry from pre-referendum meetings when people like Owen Paterson promised us a future free of all the regulations farmers so dislike. This is what tempted, many farmers to vote for Brexit, despite knowing it would also mean walking away from the certainty of direct payments.

It would be good if Brexit advocates explained now exactly what we are getting and how we will be freed from regulation. Some in the Westminster cabinet can duck this by claiming that they were not part of the campaign to leave the EU. 

However, this does not apply to Michael Gove. He was at the centre of the campaign and saw people like Owen Paterson as foot soldiers to win the farmer vote. 

Now, it seems, we will not escape many of the regulations. In fact, Michael Gove is as enthusiastic about these as many in the European Commission. 

Brexit was always about putting clear blue water between agriculture in the UK and in the EU-27, but that now looks an extremely thin blue line.
Further, it would be good to hear some of the Brexit advocates, including Gove, setting out a future where decisions would be based purely on science. 

They could then commit to a science-driven review of GM crops and explain if and how we can have a different policy to the EU-27, whilst still accessing their market. 

If this is not possible, then the government should tell farmers now that they will not be escaping EU environmental and other regulations, and that, in fact, all they will be escaping is the certainty of direct payments under the CAP.

It has now emerged that the government is considering an EU ‘divorce’ settlement of close to €40bn. This is an offer the European Commission will seek to push upwards now that the UK has blinked so early in the negotiations. 

This is a far cry from the millions for the NHS we were promised would be available because we would no longer have to pay money to Brussels. 

In return for this generous settlement, the UK would secure a deal in some form allowing continued access to the single market in the EU-27.

This is a market we have been members of since the UK, under Margaret Thatcher, drove its development. 

It is, however, unlikely that access based on a deal could be as powerful as the present position of access by right, with the full protection of the European Court to enforce it.

The government at Westminster will see a divorce deal as a trigger to step up trade negotiations with third countries. Welcome as this is, we need to remember we already have these global trade deals, and others, as members of the EU. 

That suggests what is ahead is a very costly purchase of things we already have, with the only potential gain being able to impose some limits on the free movement of people. 

This would be a limited gain for the farming and food industries because of their reliance on foreign national labour.

It is too easy for politicians to label as ‘remoaners’ those questioning the detail of Brexit. However, the Leave advocates were vocal before the referendum with their vision of a future outside the EU. Now that this will be happening in little over 18 months time, they need to display some of that vision again. We need firm evidence that they have a genuine plan in place to deliver Brexit as an economic success. 

The worry for many is that it could all too easily end up a case of leaping from the frying pan into the fire, because so many concessions will have to be made to buy support from the EU-27 over market access.