Exit Theresa May

SIR – Theresa May has announced that she will not be standing as an MP at the general election (telegraph.co.uk, March 8).

I wish other Tories in Name Only would follow her example (I have Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt in mind). Then they could be replaced by true Conservatives capable of taking the fight to Labour. John Kennedy Hornchurch, Essex

SIR – Theresa May has an impeccable record as a constituency MP, and I’m sure that the people of Maidenhead will be sad to see her go.

Her record as prime minister, however, is another matter. Having won the Conservative Party leadership by default, she made her first catastrophic mistake early on, when she called an unnecessary election. Throwing away David Cameron’s hard-won majority and coming within an inch of losing to – of all people – Jeremy Corbyn set the tone for everything that would follow.

Her time in office was defined chiefly by her abysmal handling of the Brexit negotiations. Never apparently believing in the benefits of British sovereignty, she allowed Brussels to dictate the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement in a way that would have left Britain an impotent province within an emboldened EU empire.

But the most damaging aspect of her tenure was surely net zero, introduced after she’d announced her departure, and without proper debate. This commitment has cost Britain billions of pounds – the single most expensive act of virtue-signalling in history.

Jeremy Crick

Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire

SIR – It would be deliciously ironic if Boris Johnson were to step up and stand in Theresa May’s seat.