Blameforbrexit

In his letter on 27 July (“By voting against the Withdrawal Agreement, the SNP made nodeal more likely”), Conservative MP Stephen Kerr three times blames Labour and the SNP for voting against Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, and blames these parties for the uncertainty the whole country now faces.

Nowhere does he mention his fellow Conservative MPS. The fact is that if the Conservatives were not a divided party the Withdrawal Agreement would have been passed. The Tories and their DUP allies have a majority: that is why Boris Johnson is now PM.

Labour is the official opposition party, its duty is to oppose and say there is something better than the deal Theresa May proposed, which there clearly is. Stephen Kerr is being less than honest in blaming everyone else and not mentioning his own side at all.

Boris Johnson has come to power saying the Northern Ireland backstop must be replaced and says the EU must change their position. But the Conservatives seem to have completely forgotten that the backstop was Theresa May’s idea. It was dreamt up to bridge irreconcilable positions so that the EU would move on to trade negotiations.

It is up to the Conservatives

to propose a workable solution to the Northern Ireland border, not to jump up and down and insist the EU changes something they didn’t want in the first place.

The current uncertainty has been caused by David Cameron holding a referendum for party political reasons, Theresa May trying to negotiate a deal with incompatible red lines and coming up with a backstop idea that split her own party.

That is the truth, not the line Stephen Kerr is trying to peddle. We need a general election, and soon.

PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh