Theresa May’s plans for Brexit betray the election manifesto and the terms of the referendum
SIR – A few days ago I received an email from Theresa May. In it she asked me for money to help her election campaign and said that she is delivering on Brexit.
I am afraid that to my mind this is just not true, and I have no intention of assisting her to be re-elected, as not only has she betrayed my trust in her but now she is also lying to me.
Remember the Lancaster House speech? Remember the general election manifesto? “We will no longer be members of the single market or customs union.”
Now she is proposing a “deal” whereby we not only stay in the customs union and under the jurisdiction of the ECJ for ever but pay nearly £40billion for the privilege. This is Remain minus minus. I am unable to imagine a worse outcome.
What is the point of Liam Fox’s department for international trade when we will not be able to enter into any trade deals with other governments? Where is Michael Gove? He did a fantastic job in education but is now faffing around with ideas to ban wood-burning stoves – a real vote catcher in the shires.
It is symptomatic of the Government that instead of proposing new ideas and fulfilling its manifesto promises, it tries to frighten voters to vote for it by showing the awful alternatives. The Tory party I used to support was one that sought to win and retain support by being positive. The current party seems to have nothing to offer but a move to the political Left and the avoidance of negatives – Project Fear 3.0. This scheme patently failed at the last election.
I would even accept the risk of a Corbyn government rather than a Remain minus minus deal. Geoff Neden
Diddlebury, Shropshire
SIR – The Prime Minister is by stealth gradually putting her own Brexit terms to Parliament.
How can this happen when the majority of the country voted for a complete break from the EU? This does not seem to be democratic to me. D R Edwards
Birchington, Kent
SIR – Is Mrs May playing a double game? Is she still at heart a Remainer? Stewart J Wild
London N3
SIR – Can anyone now doubt that the progression from Lancaster House speech to today’s “endless” backstop shows that Mrs May’s negotiations with the EU for Brexit have been nothing more that a charade? Her purpose is quite clear, to keep the UK in the EU. We have been comprehensively misled from the start and I for one am frustrated because I feel helpless and unable to do anything with an MP who toes Mrs May’s line.
What has happened to democracy? Colvin Williams
Beverley, East Yorkshire
SIR – Lies, deceit, treachery, bullying and now bribery (again). Is there anything this woman won’t do to get her own way at the expense of her country?
Steve and Elaine Ladd
Bristol
SIR – The customs union is the final straw. Is there no petition to ask her to resign? Philip Bonsall
Stockport
SIR – Allister Heath asks of the Tories: “Do they have the guts to listen to the voters? Or do they have a political death wish?”
The answer is easy. They have Theresa May. Professor Alan Sked
London School of Economics London WC2
SIR – Message to Theresa May. “No deal is better than a bad deal” – remember your promises. Remember your red lines.
No deal. Eleanor Davis
Buckley, Flintshire
SIR – If I could ask Mrs May two questions they would be these. Is Brexit really Brexit? How dire must a deal be before it becomes a bad deal? Andrew Mcallister
Shrewsbury
SIR – The EU’S intention of locking the UK into a customs union is more connected to its desire to preserve its massive trade surplus with the UK than any concerns about the Irish border. Robert Sharp
East Grinstead, West Sussex
SIR – When is the parliamentary Conservative Party going to snap out of its apparent trance and realise that this compromising, appeasing approach to an intransigent hostile opponent (the EU ) will only result in national servitude and impoverishment?
It is now time to find some sensible leadership and to restore some national resilience in grasping this opportunity. Jeremy Stewardson
Hong Kong