The Spectator

Letters | 26 April 2018

Resetting Brexit

Sir: I agree with Fraser Nelson’s article ‘Brexit blunders’ (21 April). I am a Leaver, but immigration did not figure in my decision in the referendum. On the contrary, I recall many years ago hearing that some 240 languages were spoken in London and the UK, and for some reason it made me immensely proud.

If Theresa May does not understand that immigration is not the issue, then we have the wrong leader. My suspicions in this regard are further strengthened by her stated but continually thwarted ambitions to have a special relationship with the EU bloc. Her attempts are relentlessly rebuffed and, because of the EU’s fear of ‘letting us off lightly’, I begin to fear that they always will be. Irish borders are the latest stumbling block, but even if that is resolved, another obstacle will be raised.

It is time for two new approaches, both of which our nation would almost naturally adopt with goodwill. First, take the moral high ground and commute citizens’ rights to all EU nationals resident in the country, regardless of any reciprocal rights from the EU for our own citizens in their countries.

Secondly, take a new tough approach to negotiations with the EU, making it clear that a hard Brexit may be our preferred option. Businesses in the UK can then plan accordingly and since they, not the government, will lead us into the future, it is essential that they do so as soon as possible.
Guy Baly

Saxmundham, Suffolk

Rose-tinted

Sir: Your castigation of Theresa May’s immigration policies, past and present, is entirely justified. But your rose-tinted view of the part immigration played in the EU referendum is not. It is not true that ‘every Brexit campaigner … wanted to grant immediate and unconditional guarantees’ that EU nationals in the UK would not be adversely affected by Brexit.

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