Starmer and Brexit

MP Laycock, Killinghall.

Sir Keir Starmer (April 1) accuses HM Government of rushing through “a careless Brexit deal”. How extraordinary! A deal that took three and a half years to negotiate does not seem “rushed” to me.

Negotiating with a man whose stated objective was to “be so hard on the British” that we should regret our decision to leave, was never going to be easy, especially when, for three years, we had a Prime Minister who was not really in favour of Leaving.

Boris worked hard to retrieve some of Mrs May’s concessions but his efforts were severely hampered by his lack of a parliamentary majority and by an Opposition led by Jeremy Corbyn and conducted by his ally, Sir Keir Starmer, whose main objective seemed to be to make his task as difficult as possible.

They refused to let him appeal to voters at a general election until he had reached an agreement with EU negotiators. That is why Boris had to agree to far worse terms than he could otherwise have managed. That is why Sir Keir Starmer is largely responsible for many problems of our present Brexit deal.

Dick Lindley, Altofts.

As we approach the next general and local elections, it is with astonishment that we read that many Labour party MPs are complaining to Keir Starmer and his comrades at Party HQ that the election leaflets being handed out by Labour party activists are way too patriotic because they feature our national flag.

Are these Labour MPs ashamed to be British? Do they detest our wonderful country and its fantastic history or are they afraid that some sections of our population, who have historically voted Labour, find the British flag so deeply offensive that they are unlikely to vote for the Labour party again.

Although Starmer and the top people in his party are keen to establish an air of patriotic solidarity with ordinary folks, in order to gather extra votes, the presence of so many Labour MPs who seem to dislike our national flag and maybe our entire country will I believe cause Starmer to reap a bitter harvest indeed, for the majority of ordinary British folks love our country irrespective of their party political affiliations.