Editorial Comment:

SIR – I thought Theresa May was planning to spend her summer on a “charm offensive”, visiting Conservative association chairmen to persuade them to act as ambassadors for the Government’s Brexit policy and quell discontent among the grassroots.

Since that plan was reported, however, discontent has grown. Jim Fleming, the Portsmouth councillor, has resigned; the chairman of Andrea Leadsom’s South Northamptonshire association has said that the Government has “lost the sense of leaving”; and seven chairmen of Cabinet ministers’ associations have told the Telegraph that they oppose Mrs May’s current Brexit plans. Even Richard Kellaway, the chairman of Mrs May’s Maidenhead association, said recently: “If it were to be diluted, it would ultimately not be acceptable.”

What has happened? Surely it is time for Jacob Rees-mogg to put an end to the misery.

Geoffrey Brooking Havant, Hampshire

SIR – My reading of the Chequers agreement does not accord with Boris Johnson’s (Comment, August 27).

The agreement says: “Parliament would have oversight of the incorporation of these rules [for all goods including agri-food] into the UK’S legal order – with the ability to choose not to do so, recognising that this would have consequences.” Of course, we need to agree with the EU what environmental and technical standards we should have in common, but Brexit will give us the freedom to do so as we see fit. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 has received the royal assent, repealing the European Communities Act of 1972 with effect from the day that we leave.

The purpose of the Chequers agreement, as I understand it, is to make an offer to the EU which, if it has any sense, it will accept. We should be backing this strategy, and be prepared to enshrine it in law.

Anthony Pick Newbury, Berkshire