Brexithitspoor

Let me start with the hard facts. The government has spent £8.4 billion on Brexitrelated matters as of Friday, 6 December, 2018 (figure supplied by Ian Murray, MP).

In contrast, the Chancellor gave £1 billion over five years to ease people’s transition into Universal Credit but, in keeping benefits frozen as he will until 2019/20, cut almost £4bn a year from the benefits bill.

So when Joyce Mcmillan writes that Brexit is something of a distraction from more serious matters like poverty (Perspective, 7 December), she understates the case. It is not just a distraction. It is far worse than that. Even now Brexit is actively taking money away from the poor, with the prospect of these same poor being the biggest losers under whatever deal is agreed.

But what else should we ever have expected from Brexit’s super-rich advocates who lied and used illegal campaigning means to get what they wanted whilst protecting their own assets by moving them abroad? Not for them any care for the increasing number of children living in poverty.

No wonder the Tory government was so quick to dismiss Philip Alston’s devastating report on poverty in the UK and his critique of the benefits system as “punitive, meanspirited and callous”.

Brexit was started by David Cameron purely for political reasons. It was a vain attempt to unite the Tory Party. It has succeeded not only in making the divisions much worse

but also in splitting the entire country into warring factions.

Well done, Joyce Mcmillan, Michael Heseltine and Jeremy Corbyn in bringing us back to the issue of poverty and the importance of Philip Alston’s report. Corbyn has been much-criticised for raising the hardships faced by people on Universal Credit in his PMQ but these are the things that really matter. After all, we can resolve the Brexit conundrum by cancelling the whole process now. Helping the poor will take rather more effort.

JUDITH GILLESPIE

Findhorn Place, Edinburgh