Britain’s governing classes are showing contempt for Brexit voters

SIR – Reading Daniel Hannan’s article (“Tribal MPs are doing the EU’s dirty work”, Comment, May 20) made me feel ill.

If he is correct – and the evidence suggests he is – it is clear that there is nothing that certain elements of our governing classes are not prepared to bring about if it means that Britain can stay in the EU. Not the overturning of a democratic decision we were assured would be honoured; not the engendering of incalculable damage to the social and political fabric of the nation; not the reduction of the country to provincial and supplicant status within a corrupt superstate; not even the inevitability of Britain being reduced to a laughing-stock.

That so many of our so-called elites wish to pursue these ends is as contemptible as it is unbelievable. The referendum was sanctioned by Parliament. It was, by definition, binding. If it wasn’t going to be binding, there was no point in holding it. Had the result gone the other way, those of us who voted to leave would have accepted it. We would have recognised that the country had spoken and that the important thing was to come together.

Everyone in government or another position of influence should be working to enact what the nation decided, and to achieve the best possible deal for Britain. The House of Lords, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and the Tory rebels are showing a contempt for the democratic process, and for the majority of British people, that is absolute and flagrant. They are a disgrace. Philip J Ashe

Leeds, West Yorkshire

SIR – Jeremy Warner (Comment, May 20) suggests that Brexit has become a farce. That is surely because the Prime Minister said that “no deal is better than a bad deal” but continues to pursue compromise between her MPs. Since the majority of them are Remainers, and the EU remains intransigent, that is more likely to result in a bad deal than not.

Theresa May seems to be heading for a fudge, handing Mr Corbyn an open door to No 10 in the process, while leaving Britain under a significant degree of EU control. That doesn’t sound much like a good deal.

Compromise is what people have to do after failing to get the best outcome. It should not be an objective in itself. What we need now is tenacity and conviction. So please, Mrs May, grasp the nettle and remove us from the clutches of the EU once and for all. Don’t settle for a bad deal. Roger J Arthur

Pulborough, West Sussex

SIR – Jeremy Hosking’s letter (May 20), arguing that “Brexit dithering is part of the plan”, is revealing – and, if correct, does not bode well for this Government, or the future of the Conservative Party.

Many of my friends have reached this conclusion and suspect there is a plan to kick Brexit into the long grass. Philip Griffiths

Birkenhead