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The October 29, Star published a letter from Louise Haigh MP for Sheffield Heeley entitled "Labour trusts the people to decide" and also one from Veronica Hardstaff "Region will lose millions."

The ladies share a common bond in that they are both perceived to be staunch supporters of the Labour Party and are anti-Brexit. They also appear to share a blinkered view of political reality when extolling the virtues of a prospective Labour government and the perils of the consequences of our leaving the European Union, even though we have still to do so and the actual consequences are not yet apparent to those of us without a crystal ball.

I accept that Boris Johnson has brought back a "deal" (sic) which is quoted as being 90% similar to Mrs May's failed effort, the main difference being his proposed settlement of the Irish border backstop terms. Louise goes into great detail of the negative consequences for the UK in accepting what is actually a treaty, binding us in law much more than any deal. Both ladies should ask themselves why, if the "deal" is so bad for us, are our 27 EU partners being fair and reasonable with the UK in wishing for us to accept the Withdrawal Agreement unilaterally signed by Mrs May and which subsequently failed three times to be ratified in our Parliament?

Could it be that the document is heavily weighted in favour of the EU and they are being very intransigent in not wishing to amend it to any great degree? While our elected MPs including Louise prevaricate over the Brexit withdrawal process the UK continues to fund EU coffers by £1 billion each month. This leads me to question yet again Veronica's apparent head in the sand approach when she continues to tell everyone that our regions suffering economic and industrial change would not have benefited without EU Regional and Social funding. The UK is a leading net contributor to the EU budget, as recently stated in Parliament currently running at £1 billion per month. We receive a portion of our funding back to enable South Yorkshire to be "rewarded by our EU paymaster, a fine example of their sprat to catch our mackerel, not only in financial terms but also in our loss of home fishing grounds!

In conclusion, I respectfully remind the ladies that 17.4 million people voted to Brexit following an assurance from the Leaders of both Tory and Labour parties that the 2016 referendum result would be honoured and implemented by them, with no mention of any deal on the ballot paper. To have a confirmatory referendum because the Remain losers will not accept the result makes a mockery of our democratic system, we could have referenda ad nauseam! Would all Remain voters accept a confirming second referendum Leave vote with a majority of 1 let alone 1.4 million, I am not holding my breath awaiting that expectation!

The UK is now going to have a General Election on December 12. Voters have the opportunity to show some of our MPs their displeasure at having their referendum vote ignored by them with the excuse that the people did not know what they were voting for. Should Boris Johnson gain a good working majority at the election, with or without the support of the Brexit party, he would be doing our country a great service by promptly taking us out of the EU on January 31, 2020 with or without a deal, rather than our continuing to enjoy Veronica's vision of the alleged excellent deal we already enjoy as members of the EU, a view which 17.4 million voters do not share.