MPs passed the Trade Bill -- without a crucial amendment that would ensure proper scrutiny of trade deals.

But, we didn’t lose by much, a mere 30 votes. And the good news is: we have another shot at it.

The trade bill will be debated in the House of Lords in the first couple of weeks of September, right after the summer break. If we convince peers to change the Trade Bill to ensure parliament gets meaningful scrutiny over trade deals we can stop trade secrecy for good!

Ask members of the House of Lords to change the Trade Bill so that peers and MPs are guaranteed meaningful scrutiny over all trade deals, including a vote to approve them.

Without meaningful scrutiny, we’re likely to sign up to trade deals that threaten labour standards, public health and the environment -- as well as food standards and farm animal welfare. We already know that the US farming lobby wants chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-injected beef to be part of a UK-US trade deal. 

If parliament doesn’t get a proper say over trade deals, it could even mean opening up the NHS to US healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. Theresa May has previously refused to rule out the NHS from trade talks with Trump.

In order to safeguard the standards of food on our plates, and protect the NHS we need MPs and Lords to be able to have a proper say over trade deals -- which means:

•  Parliament must be guaranteed a full debate and vote to approve trade deals

•  There’s transparency in negotiations – including publishing the texts agreed so far by both sides after each round of negotiations

•  Parliament’s consent is required on objectives and limits for negotiations (the negotiating mandate)

With the Trade Bill set to land in the House of Lords so soon after the summer holidays we don’t have much time to convince peers to send the Trade Bill back to the government with clauses that ensure parliament will get meaningful scrutiny over trade deals. That means we need lots of people demanding they do, and quickly.

Together we’ve made Liam Fox and the government realise that trade democracy is important to us. They made a last gasp attempt to convince us they were taking it seriously. But their last minute ‘concessions’ didn’t go nearly far enough.

We still need MPs and Lords to be guaranteed a vote on the deal itself.

You’ve already done so much to stop trade deals becoming corporate power grabs, and have put transparency firmly on the agenda. You have signed petitions and emailed Liam Fox in your thousands. The government has taken note of your demands, but still thinks it can get away with ignoring them. 

Now we need to keep going, and take that momentum to the House of Lords.