Leaving the customs union and the single market cannot be fudged

SIR – Much is made of the Chequers meeting and the subsequent White Paper, but the Prime Minister has consistently asserted that we will be leaving the single market and the customs union. Why would that change in the White Paper?

There will no doubt be some “give” along the way, but we need a strong negotiating stance. We are not without power, and neither side wants to trade on World Trade Organisation terms. Iris Clyde

Kirkwall, Orkney

SIR – In your Leading Article (July 2) you state that Theresa May will gather the Cabinet this week to “thrash out a compromise policy” – partly because of the obduracy of the EU.

“Compromise” would seem to indicate the possibility of accepting a bad deal. But as Jacob Rees-mogg states on the opposite page, we should be prepared to walk away with no deal.

We are being bullied at every turn by the EU because they see Mrs May for what she is – weak and vacillating. If she does accept a bad deal, she will soon be able to enjoy as many walking holidays as she likes because her political career will be over. Hopefully her replacement will be a fully paid-up member of the awkward squad. Martin Henry

Good Easter, Essex

SIR – Sir Alan Duncan suggests that Mr Rees-mogg was being insolent. How can an MP holding the Prime Minister to her promises be deemed insolence? Peter Hole

Northowram, West Yorkshire

SIR – Damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. The Tory party is doing all it can to destroy Brexit and Mrs May at the same time. Anthony Haslam

Farnham, Surrey

SIR – Hindsight shows that Article 50 should have been triggered on June 24 2016, in accord with the referendum instruction of the British people. After all, speed is of the essence when it suits. David Cameron was able to resign on that day, so why not Britain?

The negotiating position then was clear and unequivocal: “We’re leaving the EU in two years’ time, and will then operate under WTO rules. Between now, then and afterwards, our door is open to the rest of the world, including the EU, about negotiating mutually preferential terms of trade.”

Incredibly, we would now be in our second week of trading freedom, had the government been democratically honest. John Drewry

Beckenham, Kent

SIR – We Brexiteers have been mistaken to sneer at Jean-claude Juncker’s antics.

We should concede our admiration: in two years he has reduced the United Kingdom to a position of grovelling surrender, prohibited from any trade connection with the Commonwealth. RL Skinner

Henley-in-arden, Warwickshire