Boris Johnson’s speech exposed Theresa May’s betrayal of Brexit ideals, which must be restored

SIR – Theresa May did indeed spell out in her Mansion House and Lancaster House speeches what she wanted for Britain from a Brexit deal. She deviated completely from that position when she and Oliver Robbins constructed the Chequers White Paper. That she betrayed her earlier promises to the British people is there for all to see.

Perhaps she has one last chance to keep her word. If not, please can we have someone with the required courage and integrity to replace her? Elaine Mckie

Appleby, Westmorland

SIR – I cannot understand why more is not being made of the duplicitous manner in which Theresa May produced her Chequers proposal.

Her intention all along was to produce a Brexit in name only. She used the Department for Exiting the EU as a front to deceive the people of this country, Parliament and her own Cabinet into thinking she was sincere in avowing that “Brexit means Brexit”, while her cabal of civil servants prepared this betrayal in secret.

Such behaviour is typical of the EU which she so wishes to remain a part of. It has no place in a democracy such as ours. Her behaviour demeans her office and insults her colleagues and the electorate. If she had a shred of decency she would resign now. Nigel Cowan

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – Boris Johnson described the fog of self-doubt of a Government that has burnt through its negotiating capital. He said it has been taboo even to discuss solutions to the Irish border problem. He also mentioned that the Chequers plan serves to volunteer our economic vassalage and would leave Britain in a permanent limbo.

What he downplays is that these are the deliberate tactics of the Brexit unit in No 10 – directed, as is Mrs May, by Oliver Robbins.

Michael Portillo saw through the scheming a month before the Chequers plan, saying that the Remainers encircling the Prime Minister are conspiring to drive us deep into the quicksand until everyone concedes that it’s intolerable. The plan was to manoeuvre the country into such a wretched place that an exhausted people would eventually beg to row back on Brexit. Martin Burgess

Beckenham, Kent

SIR – I am no fan of Boris Johnson, but he gave a cracking speech. It is even clearer to me now that either the Olly half of the Therolly combo of Mrs May and Mr Robbins should go, or the Ther half should go. I suggest it would be much less disruptive for the nation to shove Olly off out of the way, maybe as a special adviser to the government of St Helena.

Dr D R Cooper

Maidenhead, Berkshire

SIR – On BBC Radio 4’s Today Anna Soubry bemoaned the Government winning the vote on Tuesday to keep Britain out of a European customs union, in line with the result of the referendum. Is she unaware that it was the Cameron government’s taxpayerfunded circular to every household in the UK which stated that a Brexit vote would entail just that – leaving the customs union and the single market? W D Gammell

Hurst Green, East Sussex

SIR – If the EU can do a deal with Japan that entails no freedom of movement and no “common rule book”, and where the ECJ is not the final arbiter, why not the same for one with the UK? Alastair Muir

Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire

SIR – A no-tariff trade agreement such as that signed by Japan and the EU is exactly what we (both Brexiteers and Remainers) want.

We cannot get it because of the “punishment” attitude of unelected EU commissioners, and some EU politicians, combined with the “lie down” negotiations of Theresa May. Peter Leon

London N6