Time for a Chancellor who believes in Brexit

SIR – Philip Hammond has announced that he will resign on Wednesday. I suspect I will not be alone in missing his cheery demeanour.

Mr Hammond has never hidden his disapproval of Brexit, and has talked down Britain’s prospects at every opportunity. Time to replace him with a more dynamic Chancellor.

Dr Richard AE Grove

Isle of Whithorn, Wigtownshire

SIR – It is somewhat ironic that Mr Hammond has been making use of the very tactic that he is trying to prevent our future prime minister from using.

I doubt that he intends to vote down a Conservative government, yet he refuses to rule out the idea because he knows the value of a threat. At the same time, he is attempting to stop the next prime minister placing the maximum pressure on the EU by threatening to leave without a deal.

Angela Jones

Ascot, Berkshire

SIR – There is a belief in the Conservative Party that, as long as Britain leaves the EU on October 31, all those who deserted the Tories in the European elections in May will come flooding back.

I am not so sure. The disloyal and anti-democratic behaviour of a sizeable minority of Conservative MPS will be neither forgotten nor forgiven. They stood on a manifesto explicitly stating that Britain would leave the EU, but they have done everything in their power to prevent this.

While I hope that the constituency associations do the right thing and deselect those MPS who have consistently disrespected both the referendum result and the 2017 manifesto, many have not or will not.

Conservative supporters need to see the voting records of every MP standing for re-election, so that they will be fully informed as to the political character of their local candidate – and, where there is an alternative such as the Brexit Party, are able to vote accordingly.

Steve Narancic

Wantage, Oxfordshire