EVERY month, Policing minister and MP for North West Hampshire, covering Andover and further afield, writes a column for the Advertiser. Here’s what he said this time:

After months of negotiations, we have struck a trade deal with Australia. It is the first major agreement we have negotiated from scratch since Brexit. Australia is one of our oldest friends and partners, and a country that the EU did not have any form of trade agreement with.

Under the deal tariffs on British cars, Scotch whiskey, biscuits and ceramics will be slashed or completely abolished – creating jobs and boosting our industries that employ millions of people across the country.

It is good news for our local farmers who produce some of the best products in the world. This deal with Australia brings us closer to joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership - a £9 trillion free trade area home to some of the biggest consumer markets of the future. This will provide our farmers with huge opportunities.

I want our small and medium businesses to be able to trade and export abroad quickly and easily and I’m pleased that under this deal, red tape and bureaucracy will be torn down for more 13,000 small businesses, enabling them to do just that.

This agreement is a glimpse into our future as post-Brexit Britain. We are now looking well beyond Europe and striking deals that deepen our alliances with our old Commonwealth friends and growing Asia-Pacific markets.

This will spread opportunity at home including right here in North West Hampshire.