The EU referendum vote explicitly meant leaving the single market and the customs union

SIR – It would appear that the success of the 16 entrepreneurs who wrote to you (Letters, June 11) is not the result of attention to detail. They say: “The referendum in 2016 was about leaving the EU. It was not about leaving the single market, nor the customs union.”

Had they read the document sent by the Government to every UK household, they would have seen that a vote to leave meant losing access to the single market. Had they listened to politicians from David Cameron downwards they would have heard it involved leaving the customs union.

It was clear that this is what leaving the EU meant. Indeed, it was that knowledge which persuaded me to vote Remain. Andrew Wauchope

London SE11

SIR – I’m afraid the 16 entrepreneurs display an astonishing level of intellectual dishonesty by arguing that we only voted to leave the EU, not the single market or the customs union. The British people voted to leave the EU and all its structures.

This was spelt out clearly in the referendum debate about controlling immigration (which means leaving the single market) and striking trade deals (which means leaving the customs union). Iain Jenkins

Ashford, Kent

SIR – Here we go again. We grew used to orchestrated letters from self-styled experts opposing Brexit before the referendum. This time a few entrepreneurs claim to speak on behalf of others and lecture the rest of us on what is good for British business.

This nation of shopkeepers has untold numbers of entrepreneurs, people who run their own businesses, who would strongly disagree – many of them from the 94 per cent of British businesses which do not trade with the EU.

These British businesses account for 70 per cent of our economy and those who run them made their voice heard through the ballot box by voting to leave a protectionist, unaccountable trading bloc which has steadily seen its share of world trade diminish. John May

Arkesden, Essex

SIR – I fear that Juliet Samuel (Comment, June 11) is correct in warning that Theresa May is “leading us inexorably towards the worst of all possible worlds” on Brexit.

If so, there is now only one option left to us: to walk away from the negotiations entirely, and take our money offer with us. Since Mrs May will never agree to this (and the whole of the establishment would fight it tooth and nail), it will require a brave and concerted challenge from Leavers within the Tory party to topple her.

It still might not be too late. But given the Remainer tendencies of Parliament, the challengers would need to make an impassioned case direct to the electorate to show why the non-brexit towards which Mrs May is edging is such a deceit and such a betrayal of the referendum decision. A “no-deal” Brexit would mean short-term pain and disruption for us. But it would also mean that at a stroke a currently contemptuous and understandably intransigent EU would lose all leverage over us. Nigel Henson

Farningham, Kent

SIR – Your readers are desperate. They know in their hearts and in their bones that the Tories will betray Brexit. You know it. Charles Moore knows it. The butcher, baker and candlestick-maker know it.

Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-mogg will complain but do nothing. It is high time to abandon the party.

We need a new party system, a political revolution after which true conservatism and liberalism can flourish. Theresa May needs thousands of your readers to tell her that, thanks to her betrayals, they will never vote Tory again. Professor Alan Sked

London School of Economics London WC2