Europhile MPs turned belated champions of parliamentary sovereignty
SIR – The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill debate has included some excellent speeches, but it is amazing that so many MPs who oppose the Bill (because it allows the Government to make technical amendments to legislation through so-called “Henry VIII powers”) do so on the grounds of defending the sovereignty of the House of Commons.
Yet these are the same people who have been prepared to accept the primacy of the EU and oblige the UK to accept over 12,000 regulations without any Parliamentary authority.
The sooner we leave and regain control of our laws, trade policies, agriculture, fishing, immigration, and expenditure the better. John Sharp
Great Glen, Leicestershire
SIR – The Tory rebels threatening to vote down the Great Repeal Bill because of “Henry VIII powers” are coming very late to the party.
Surely they must know that, under the European Communities Act 1972, the executive has spent the last 40 years using such powers to implement EU directives and other decisions into UK law. Why are these powers permissible to get us into the EU, but not permissible to get us out? Ben Crompton London E3
SIR – Jane O’Nions (Letters, September 3) is under the mistaken impression that Britain cannot on its own come up with social models that respond appropriately to the needs of the weak and vulnerable as well as the rest of us.
I would remind her that Britain was an instigator of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the NHS without any help from the EU, which at the time wasn’t even in its infancy. The weakness of the European social model she cites is that it takes no account of cost, nor of individuals’ own responsibility. Kate Brightwell
Chorleywood, Hertfordshire
SIR – Every Conservative MP who stood in the last general election knew that the party manifesto said Britain would ultimately be leaving the customs union and the single market.
Now the usual suspects, in particular former ministers, threaten to derail Brexit over those points.
The British people have had enough of this grandstanding. If the rebel MPs can’t support their own manifesto, then they should stand aside and let others fight their seats. Peter Flanagan
Stockton-on-the-Forest, North Yorkshire
SIR – Perhaps the time has come for Theresa May to appoint a “contingency minister” with the sole responsibility for formulating plans in case we are forced into a Brexit with no deal.
Such an appointment would satisfy critics at home who accuse the Government of being unprepared for such an outcome, as well as showing those in Brussels that the UK could successfully go it alone. Stephen Reichwald London NW8