Within hours of Theresa May speaking to Parliament about the deal she negotiated, hundreds of Lib Dems gathered on Parliament Square to make clear they opposed it.

For over two years now Liberal Democrats have led the fight to give people the final say on the Brexit deal in a People's Vote, with the option to remain in the EU. And Thursday was a big day. It was the day that turned a People's Vote from a possibility into a probability.

For over two years now Liberal Democrats have led the fight to give the people the final say on the deal with the option to remain in the EU.

Parliament has seen the deal that Theresa May has cobbled together. We have a real chance to derail the Conservatives' damaging and chaotic Brexit.

So this Autumn, I'm are asking you to do three simple things:

It's taken us two years of negotiations with the EU to get a deal.

But what we now have in front of us is a very bad deal for the United Kingdom. We are left rule takers not rule makers.

The Liberal Democrats won't stand idly by and watch a Tory Brexit wreck our NHS, endanger our security and damage our economy

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey has warned that Theresa May's Brexit deal "will rob the UK of crucial cross-border crime-fighting tools that help to keep us safe".

Article 8 of the withdrawal agreement, published by the Government this evening, states that the UK "shall cease to be entitled to access any network, any information system and any database established on the basis of Union law".

Article 63 states that we will only be able to access the Schengen Information System for a maximum of 3 months after the end of the transition period, and Europol's SIENA platform for a maximum of 1 year.

Meanwhile, Article 62 makes clear that the European Arrest Warrant will only apply to people arrested before the end of the transition period.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said:

"Theresa May's deal finally spells out in black and white what the Liberal Democrats have been warning about for the last two years: Brexit will rob the UK of crucial cross-border crime-fighting tools that help to keep us safe.

"After the transition period, we'll lose the European Arrest Warrant and access to vital data-sharing systems, making it harder for the police to put serious criminals behind bars and keep us all safe.

"The Government says it hopes to strike a 'comprehensive' deal on security co-operation, but euphemistically admits negotiations have been 'particularly challenging'. Essentially, Theresa May is asking us to trust her to sort all this out within the next two years, while admitting that she's failed to make any progress over the last two years.

"Britain's not buying it, and the Liberal Democrats demand better. That's why we are fighting to give the British people a say on Theresa May's deal, including the option of an Exit from Brexit."

"A People's Vote is now the only way to escape from this mess" - Vince Cable

Any Brexit deal will leave the UK weakened and the public poorer.

"And before the ink is dry, the Conservative Party will tear into what little Theresa May has been able to agree. The Prime Minister now faces a defeat in Parliament, as a majority will be hard or impossible to secure for what she has come up with."

Do join us for our monthly quiz held at Sprowston Senior Citizens Club in Recreation Road. (Behind the police station on the Wroxham Road.) It's great fun and all proceeds go to helping our campaign funds.

For more information and reservations, contact our Chair, Victor Scrivens on 01603 300212 or victor.scrivens@btopenworld.com

This week is Transgender Awareness week, and if you haven't had a chance to read my blog on the importance of supporting and standing alongside our transgender friends and colleagues, you can read it here: libdems.org.uk/trans-rights-are-human-rights.

Transgender and intersex communities are too often marginalised, and many forget that in the fight for equality, trans rights are human rights. We must, and we are, endeavouring to ensure that a vulnerable group of people are able to live as they are entitled to under our laws.

Across the Atlantic, Trump and his cronies are doing their very best to rewrite the definition of transgender out of existence. An agenda of social cleansing that feeds into his administration's insular and antagonistic narrative. We may like to think that Trump's views are in isolation, that his fear of difference does not seep to our shores, but it does.

Jeremy Corbyn was asked "If you could stop Brexit, would you?"
His response?
"We can't stop it. The referendum took place. Article 50 has been triggered."

But Brexit can be stopped through a People's Vote

Vince Cable

This demonstrates, if proof were needed, that Jeremy Corbyn is working hand in glove with the Conservatives to deliver their ideological Brexit.

Today, Jo Johnson quit as a Conservative government minister over the Brexit deal Theresa May is putting together - a deal which gives people the worst of both worlds.

The choice being presented to the British people is no choice at all.

Jo Johnson MP

In his resignation statement, Johnson said that the deal being concocted will inflict "serious economic and political harm on the country". He said what is happening is not what anyone wants and the 2016 referendum did not provide any mandate for it.