Oppose deal

WRITING to my own MP, Esther McVey has been a waste of time and I have no reason to believe that will change I am writing to ask you to vote against May’s deal (unless it is subsequently put to a people’s vote) and to persuade as many of your colleagues to do so as possible.

Also to block the no deal.

If the consequence of this is having to ask the EU for an extension in time, so be it; though I am sure you are aware that we can revoke Article 50 without anyone’s permission; and re-invoke it when and if we are ever ready.

The splintering of the two main parties makes it very difficult to predict the outcome of the votes, with Tory and Labour rebels not prepared to toe the party line.

Those whose constituents voted Leave default to having to follow the wishes of their constituents.

This is not what the MPs’ code of conduct requires them to do.

You are not delegates sent to Parliament to present your constituents’ views; rather you are representatives charged with making decisions in the interests of the country as a whole, with a special duty to your constituents.

The logic is that in making good decisions for the nation, the constituents will benefit.

Since Brexit under all its guises is going to make the country worse off according to the government’s own forecasts, and government revenues are therefore going to fall, it is difficult to see why any MP would vote for it, irrespective of what your constituents might have thought in the summer of 2016.

And when it comes to May’s deal, the focus of the DUP and the ERG may have been the backstop, but the rest of the deal is just as problematic.

It makes us the vassal state that Bojo argued wrongly that we already were as members of the EU.

There are no advantages vis a vis our current deal, so how is that good for the country?

The other mantra which has done the rounds for the past two years is the one about the will of the people which must be respected.

Let’s remind ourselves that we know the contest was won illegally and that only a loophole in the law prevents it from being declared null and void; that 17.3 million represents 52 per cent of the turnout, but only 37 per cent of the electorate and 26 per cent of the population.

Democracy is about government for all the people, not just the 26 per cent, more than a million of whom are now dead; and it is particularly concerning for the young, those who are having the rights that we have had for 40 odd years taken away from them without a say.

So please consider these points over the coming days and vote against May’s deal unless there is a guarantee that if passed by Parliament, it goes to the people for the final say, with the alternative being that we remain in the EU Mike Hennessy Wilmslow