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If only we’d been warned over Brexit

Nearly five years since the Brexit vote it's proving to be far from the success the ringleaders promised

Boris Johnson (right) speaks alongside (from left to centre) Priti Patel, Kate Hoey and Michael Gove. - Credit: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Reading the news this morning, Violence not ruled out by loyalists, Boris throws farmers under the bus with tax-free trade for Australia, fishermen feeling betrayed due to the trade deal. And last but not least, Lord Frost (who got his peerage for striking the Brexit deal with Northern Ireland) says the border protocol is not fit for purpose. I wish we’d have been warned about all these things.

Tony Howarth, Milner St, SW3  

Under Johnsons’ marvellous new we’re-the-best trade deal, Britain would get cheap imported meat from Australia instead of the EU – while British small farms fade. Should I then purchase my bread from Sobeys in Canada rather than my local bakery?

Amanda Baker, Saughton Gardens, Edinburgh

Not contented with harassing EU citizens living in or arriving in this country, the Home Office is now turning on its own citizens.

I’ve just received a letter from HM Government telling me: “Our records show that you are currently getting one or more benefits from the DWP… and that you are a… EEA or Swiss National”.

It then goes to tell me I need to apply for a UK immigration Status by 30 June 2021 as the UK has left the EU.

Although born Belgian, I have been living in this country for more than 40 years and was naturalised British for more than 30 (and lost my Belgian nationality for the privilege).

My first reaction was to laugh. But then I got cross, for the time it will take me to put the DWP records in order (all I get is an Old Age Pension) and for the time and cost, using taxpayers money, to send those letters.

Before I recovered from the shock, my husband, who read the whole letter found that on the back it said “if you are a British national, you do not need to apply and can ignore this letter”. Presumably this is not going to correct the records in question.

Who said we had a competent government?

Marie-France Hicks

• Have your say by emailing letters@theneweuropean.co.uk. Our deadline for letters is Tuesday at 9am for inclusion in Thursday’s edition. Please be concise – letters over five paragraphs long may be edited before printing.

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