A customs partnership with the EU would be a betrayal of voters’ wishes

SIR – Both main political parties, which together garnered over 80 per cent of the general election vote, committed clearly in their manifestos to leaving both the customs union and the single market.

The half-baked “customs partnership” proposal (report, May 7), even if workable, would keep us tied to many undesirable aspects of both. By definition, therefore, either this or any other kind of customs union would be a betrayal of what people voted for, and would drag our political process further into disrepute.

The referendum result was a vote to take back control from Brussels, not then to have that control snatched away by sectional interests – or, for that matter, by unrepresentative politicians who are clearly intent on subverting our decision to leave the EU even while paying lip service to it. Nigel Henson Farningham, Kent

SIR – Of course the CBI will campaign to stay in the tariff-free customs union and Toyota may well threaten to pull jobs out of Britain, as you report. The EU is trying to blackmail us by using businesses as its proxy, threatening to deny them access to its markets unless we agree to subjugation by Brussels.

It’s time we turned the tables and made it clear to the German, French and Italian companies who want to sell in Britain that we will actively support their non-eu competitors – through favourable tax treatment and subsidies – if the EU insists on a punitive Brexit. Dr David Cottam Montauriol, Lot-et-garonne, France

SIR – Many of those who voted for Brexit claim that anybody who questions it is anti-democratic.

I am a democrat and a Conservative who believes in a free and tolerant society supported by the proceeds of capitalism. Losing our ability to trade freely with our nearest and largest customer will reduce those proceeds and damage the parts of our society that depend on them. If we split those who voted to leave the EU into their separate factions, I do not believe there is a clear view of what was voted for, and we therefore need to let the Government decide what is best for our country. Tim Mason London SW1

SIR – Claims that there are many different types of Brexit are made exclusively by Remainers, and all their suggestions are, in practice, ways of avoiding Brexit, not enabling it.

Brexit entails, above all else, leaving the single market and the customs union, as both Leave and Remain sides made crystal clear during the referendum campaign.

Remainers’ post-vote amnesia on this subject is disingenuous at best. Continued involvement in any customs union would constitute a straight reversal of the referendum result. It would be an affront to democracy. Gregory Shenkman London W8