It's been a relatively peaceful start to this key year in our fight to stop the UK leaving the EU, but that's unlikely to last as we get closer to the re-start of talks in Brussels and the May local council elections. The increasing pressure that the government and the Labour Party are facing to change tack on 'Brexit' is evident only today with news that a fourth legal challenge is being launched, this time to force May to allow MPs a vote on Single Market membership. Also the head of the CBI has demanded that the government abandons its plan to leave the customs union, saying leaving the CU will cause too much disruption to business.

The EU Withdrawal Bill has cleared the Commons and is now heading to the Lords, where Labour's Andrew Adonis and other pro-EU peers have pledged to fight it all the way. This makes it important for us to write to local members of the Upper House to make sure they oppose and amend it as much as possible. Find our local reps at https://www.writetothem.com

Then we have the local elections on May 3. While keeping our cross-party ethos, we're advising voters to vote for pro-EU candidates and to ask prospective councillors what their position is on the EU before backing them. Electing as many pro-EU councillors as possible will send a strong message to the government that we won't accept the damage that leaving the EU is likely to do to local services.