Letter To The Editor - Boris And A 'No Deal'

Dear Editor,

It came as no surprise to me when Boris Johnson won the Tory leadership election. What I cannot understand, however, is how, with little over 92,000 votes cast by only Conservative party members, he believes he has a mandate to take the UK out of the EU; potentially without a deal.

Despite multiple votes in Parliament rejecting ‘no-deal’, and numerous campaigns, petitions and street marches across the country not only rejecting no-deal, but more specifically Brexit as a whole, Johnson still thinks he has some sort of right to ignore public opinion.

Whatever else one may think of Theresa May, she at least had the decency to go to the country at the earliest opportunity after Article 50 (notifying the UK’s intention to leave the European Union) had been invoked, to get a mandate to negotiate a deal. My personal perception of Boris Johnson is that he’s a self-serving man whose life-long ambition has been to become Prime Minister. I do not believe that he holds the country's interests at heart and we shall all suffer badly under his premiership.

But surely even he is not so arrogant as to try and steam roller a no-deal Brexit through Parliament with the apparent approval of only about 0.2% of the electorate? What gives that tiny minority a right to inflict its leader’s policies on voters across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, without the rest of us having a say? Especially when this outcome leads to a significant loss of our rights and protections.

I have been told that there will be a problem in me accessing my daily medications because of a no-deal Brexit. What mandate does the PM have to compromise the health and wellbeing of people like me when we were all unequivocally promised sunlit uplands in 2016? I believe we should have the right to change our mind through a final-say referendum, especially with America now rubbing its hands in glee at finally getting market access to our precious public services after Brexit. Absolutely no one voted for this chaos.

I would be interested to read your other readers’ views on this.

Yours sincerely,

Victoria Randall
LEEDS