Inviting a revolutionary Marxist into the heart of government is not in the national interest

SIR – Theresa May can no longer claim she is acting in the national interest by allowing Jeremy Corbyn into the heart of government. Among other things, he is a revolutionary Marxist and a terrorist sympathiser who hates private enterprise.

Mrs May’s decision will give him the respectability he does not deserve and will make him more electable. This is a decision she will come to regret. David Salt

Bridgend, Glamorgan

SIR – Mrs May must go, immediately. I cannot conceive of a worse idea than recruiting the Leader of the Opposition to negotiate Brexit. I am incandescent with rage. James Allen

London W1

SIR – The person who lost the last election is now being asked to help thwart the wishes of the people who won the referendum. Mark Robbins

Bruton, Somerset

SIR – A few weeks ago in Parliament, Michael Gove comprehensively shredded Mr Corbyn’s reputation and ability. When he sat down, Mrs May approvingly patted his back.

She now wants to collaborate with Mr Corbyn, a man who also called her a stupid woman and then denied it. Perhaps he wasn’t too far wrong. Alex Robb

Liverpool

SIR – Mrs May is despised by much of the Labour Party simply for being a Tory. She is now despised by much of the Tory party for not being a Tory. What an astonishing achievement. Peter Styles

Oxford

SIR – Here was I thinking I had grown up in a country with the world’s oldest and best parliamentary democracy, based on lessons learnt in the past and respect for traditional procedures.

Things like Cabinet government and a strictly neutral Speaker have been thrown out of the window by MPS who have wilfully tried to change what the electorate voted for – to leave the EU – into the other referendum option: to remain in the EU.

Most voters are reduced to hoping that one of the 27 remaining EU countries does what the European Commission does not want it to do – refuses to extend the date on which the UK is due to make its delayed departure from the undemocratic EU. Peter Lawrie

Romsey, Hampshire SIR – I have been a Conservative activist since the Seventies. As Mrs May lurches from one disaster to the next, botching Brexit, cosying up to Mr Corbyn and destroying her party, I cannot understand how Brexiteers in the Cabinet have allowed it.

They will be remembered at the election for supporting this weak but determined Prime Minister who clings on like a limpet. It is time for them to be counted. Mrs May must go – soon.

Then, I hope, party members will be given a choice of candidates to replace her that is not “fixed” by prejudiced MPS. We need a leader able to inspire and represent the membership by being positive about Brexit rather than this true Remainer with negative vibes. Chrissie Courtney

London SW5

SIR – We have our Captain Bligh. We are desperately seeking a Fletcher Christian. Alan Crabbe

Cardiff

SIR – Mrs May’s appeal to Mr Corbyn to resolve the deadlock does have echoes of the repeal of the Corn Laws, and it could have the same effect in splitting the Conservative Party and consigning it to a long period of opposition. There the comparison ends, however.

Sir Robert Peel legislated to tear down trade barriers and tariffs, and improve the lot of the poor, against opposition from vested producer interests and his own party.

Mrs May, by contrast, looks set, at Mr Corbyn’s instigation, to lock us inside the protectionist racket of the customs union, which keeps high the cost to consumers of many basic products to protect inefficient continental producers. It is surely an irony that the party of the people should push the party of capital to protect the interests of capital at the expense of the people. Austin Spreadbury

Enfield, Middlesex

SIR – As an experienced negotiator, I think Mrs May’s big mistake is to accept the EU’S stance that it will not negotiate further. She needs to go back to the DUP and agree terms that will satisfy them and her own party. She should then put that deal to the EU and take a very hard line on it. The EU needs a deal more than we do. Steve Davies

Chepstow, Monmouthshire

SIR – Theresa May hasn’t failed at everything; she has achieved the seemingly impossible. She has made Jeremy Corbyn look reasonable and Boris Johnson look statesmanlike. Lynette Johnson

Udny, Aberdeenshire