The Tories’ bungled Brexit has cost us billions. It’s time to make that clear

Jonathan Freedland is obviously right (The reality of Brexit is biting hard. Poor people are suffering most – and now everyone can see it, 2 December). That reality is obliterating the falsehoods of the Brexiters and, much worse, inflicting terrible harm on our economy, and therefore on tax revenue and the vital services that depend on it.

When the Office for Budget Responsibility assesses the loss of growth caused by Brexit to be £100bn, and the consequent revenue reduction at £40bn, the health service, which requires just over 20% of national government expenditure, could lose about £8bn a year – £154m a week. Add to that the withdrawal and denial of doctors, nurses and other health and care workers since 2016, and the reality becomes horrific. It will also be lasting.

Surely it’s time to fully expose the real bills for the Tories’ bungled Brexit. The account is true. It’s tragic. It’s public service information, not “remoaning”. And it puts the blame where it belongs – on the mendacious governments, not the voters who hoped for “exact same benefits” with the bonus of “control”.
Neil Kinnock
Labour, House of Lords

• Gaby Hinsliff’s article is spot-on (Starmer is leading a slow march towards a softer Brexit — he just won’t say it out loud, 29 November). The disappointment, anger and frustration at the long wait for my party leader to speak the B-word in its proper context, of dismal failure and grievous loss, is too much to bear. So the decision has been made and action taken. If the UK government, of whichever colour, will not bring the EU and the life I had planned for my retirement years back to me, I shall go to the EU.

My apartment in Berlin returns to me next summer; until then I’ll spend time with family in Italy. I should be happily settled in my forever home, closer to my dearest friends, in time for the glorious opening of the 2023-24 season at the Philharmonie. Happiness awaits. I will not be looking back.
Pauline Caldwell
Derby

• Gaby Hinsliff is probably right to assert that Keir Starmer wants a softer Brexit. In relentless pursuit of a “red wall” election strategy, however, he has transformed Labour into a hard Brexit party: no free movement, no customs union, no single market, and a dog whistle to anti-immigration Faragistes. This provides little comfort to the vast majority of potential Labour voters, including me, who are pro-EU and voted remain in 2016, but who now feel badly let down.

At the end of 2020, Mr Starmer whipped his MPs to back the deeply flawed trade and cooperation agreement, but in mitigation promised to hold the government’s Brexit policy to account every step of the way. At that point, all genuine scrutiny and opposition ended; the Labour party squirmed at every mention of Brexit and has since made little or no attempt to expose the damage it has caused.

Fearful of handing Boris Johnson a stick to beat it with and fearful of retribution from red wall voters, Labour has chosen to sit on its hands and say nothing, despite the mounting evidence that Brexit has been a disaster for the UK, including the very voters it is chasing after.
John Bailey
Farnborough, Hampshire

• In your editorial (2 December), which refers to the “economic emergency” in the UK, there is a word I cannot find: Europe. We all know that Brexit is one of the main causes of this “economic emergency”, and there is no way the country can overcome this situation without building a new relationship with the continent. Is Labour ready to be the promoter of this new hope and become the pro-European party in British politics? We Europeans have been watching this sad theatre of demagogy for too long.
Nicolas Baby
Paris, France

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