United we stand '“ divided we fall!

Conservative ex-minister Anna Soubry said “The people have spoken – and they have rejected a hard Brexit.”

Politicians of all parties seem to have forgotten that when the people voted for or against in the EU referendum, they voted on the question of do we wish to remain a member of the EU.

The majority vote was to leave.

There was no mention by anyone at the time about there being a hard or soft Brexit, the electorate was not given the choice.

Having voted to leave, it is up to the government to take us out of the EU by negotiating the best deal for the country as a whole.

It would be very foolish to go against the wishes of the 17.5 million leave voters, as some of the reasons they voted to do so were to take back control of our borders and immigration, to regain our national sovereignty and to expand our world trading market.

We wish to remain a trading partner with the EU but if they are not prepared to agree to our key immigration and sovereignty conditions, the government should certainly not ditch these and accept a soft Brexit whereby little would change.

The Prime Minister called the election believing that the time was right to ask the people for their support to increase her working majority in Parliament to counter the Brexit opposition from members of all parties that she was receiving.

Unfortunately, her judgement of the nation’s hopefully favourable mood was very misguided, resulting in her party not having a working majority.

The Conservative party manifesto proposals regarding the Triple Lock State Pension, the ‘dementia tax’ and the loss of the winter fuel allowance did not help their cause – especially among the older voters.

Her political advisers on these policies have since been dismissed.

Whatever happens in the times ahead, I hope that politicians of all parties will accept the national referendum majority vote to leave the EU, put aside their differences, work toward giving the people what they have voted for, and stop placing obstacles in the way of the negotiating team.

United we stand – divided we fall!

Cyril Olsen

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5