Letters: Corbyn must hold his own party vote on Brexit

Readers are calling on Jeremy Corbyn to hold Labour's own EU referendum and to act on party members' wishes.

The letter from Momentum supporter Jim Hoyle (issue 81) about attacks on Jeremy Corbyn in TNE misses the point.

Huge numbers of Labour members and supporters, new and old, are bemused and depressed by the leadership's stance on Brexit, which seems completely out of balance with the membership's wishes. Surely this is how we (and Corbyn) got here in the first place?

One simple way to stop the in-fighting would be for the party to have its own one-person one-vote referendum on Brexit policy.

I believe this would show a large margin for a second referendum. I also believe that for just this reason Corbyn and McDonnell will not allow it to happen. Have a word, Len McCluskey?

Graham Campbell, Liverpool

Jim Hoyle's letter embodies all that is wrong with Labour's insistence on respecting Brexit: 'We have to have Brexit, despite it being an act of self-harm by the poor, who voted for it.' The idea that 'to fail to respect the referendum result is to arrogantly fail to understand the depth of understandable anger of poor people with the present system' is, to put it mildly, absurd.

How about pointing out that the policies that have 'brought them nothing but poverty and deprivation' are the work of right-wing UK governments, not the EU? That the EU has, in many cases of regional funding, been the one lifeline against UK governmental neglect?

That UK governments and their puppet-masters/propagandists in the Murdoch and Dacre press have persistently used the EU as a scapegoat for their own venality and

inadequacy?

People – including two-thirds of the city where I live – voted to self-harm out of ignorance, prejudice, and (in some cases) just to stick two fingers up to David Cameron without thinking of the consequences. But their vote did not just self-harm, but harms all of us.

Brexit must be stopped.

That does not mean failing to tackle the real problems in the UK, but it means challenging the false narrative that blames the EU.

Marianne M Gilchrist, Hull

Jim Hoyle makes the mistake of stating that voters (now a majority) are calling for a second referendum.

We are not. We are calling for a first referendum on the deal and Jeremy Corbyn recently ruled this out on the Sunday Marr programme.

I voted for Jeremy Corbyn as a 'supporter' of the Labour Party but I did not progress to full membership. Please, TNE, keep up the pressure.

When are all his young supporters going to realise that he is betraying them by preventing a future which they voted for in large numbers?

Jackie Terry, Teddington

Jim Hoyle forgets the EU six-pack of 1992. It ensured health and safety regulations which caused employers to squawk in horror at not being able to ignore reasonable concerns. He also ignores the numerous ways in which the EU has made sure that workers' rights were not trampled on. Still, that's a long time ago I guess.

Jim says Corbyn's Labour are 'fighting for change'. Please. Chanting is not fighting.

I am a female 70+ Remain voter, a life member of my trades union and an ex-Labour party member, JC of the earthly variety being too drearily unpalatable, and Momentum ensuring the comfort of staying in opposition for a long time.

Jackie Hughes, Brixham

• Send your letters for publication to letters@theneweuropean.co.uk

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