THIS week Donald Trump’s man in London was welcomed to Teesside to talk up a Trump-Johnson trade deal. I want to be straight with people about what is happening here. Our local economy relies heavily on making things to sell to Europe.

People chose to leave the EU on the understanding that we would continue to have a relationship with our closest neighbours that gives us “the exact same benefits” that we have now. That’s what we were told. But a no-deal Brexit is looming and the impact of this on our region would be like the effect of Thatcherism on steroids.

No-deal would, overnight, see customs and tariffs that would make our businesses much less competitive. The CBI say that this would wipe £2bn off the North-East economy and cost tens of thousands of jobs.

For people on Teesside, no-deal means no steel; No-deal means no chemical processing industry; No-deal means no car manufacturing.

Last week, the North East Chamber of Commerce offered a stark warning to the new PM. They said that they are “absolutely clear that a no-deal outcome cannot, and should not, be considered a credible outcome to these Brexit negotiations”. I completely agree.

NEPIC, which represents the Teesside chemical processing industry, warned last winter about the domino effect that a no-deal would have on our region’s supply chains. Business after business would fold. I remember the 1980s and I won’t let the same thing happen again.

To see our region’s mayor sign up to the new Prime Minister’s plan should worry all of us. But where does the US come into this story? Well, the people who sold us Brexit want to swap closeness with the EU for a new relationship with America.

They want to trade the certainty of good local manufacturing and service jobs for the fantasy that if we deregulate (they call it “ripping up red tape”, but it’s actually a reduction in workers’ rights like pensions, and protections for consumers and the environment) we can somehow create a completely different economy that fits better with the US model. But there is no evidence that this will work.

We now know that the price of a Donald Trump-Boris Johnson trade deal would change our NHS forever. Trump said that our NHS must be “on the table” in any trade negotiations, and that our NHS “freeloads” off the United States.

People in his administration have said that the US’s objective in trade negotiations will be to “pressure” countries like ours so that the US pays less and we pay more for health care and medicines. The British people have fought for over 70 years to make our NHS what it is. I have spend more than 20 years working as a doctor. I’m not going to cede this one without a fight.

The loss of local jobs, industry and the NHS are simply not prices I’m willing to pay for our exit from the EU, and neither should any of us. This is so different from the Brexit that we were promised, that the only honest action now is to go back to the people and check to see if this is what they really want.

I’ll fight with all I’ve got to save jobs and investment in our region, and right now that means stopping a no-deal Brexit. I’m proud of our region and believe that Teesside has so much potential.

When it comes to a no-deal Brexit, I must warn Mayor Houchen that he’s playing a dangerous game that doesn’t have the support of the local businesses that provide our jobs. They, and I, know that Teesside simply shouldn’t be taking this risk.