Letter: Council elections could be a last chance to halt Brexit

May’s ministers have continued to ‘negotiate’ with the EU on a hard Brexit basis: no single market, no customs union, no ECJ jurisdiction. This has resulted in no concessions whatsoever from the EU and created what now can be termed the Irish border crisis. But May has carried on regardless.

May has now made three major speeches on Brexit, all of them meaningless. She clings to the notion that the EU will fold and give her access to the things she wants without tariffs or oversight from EU bodies. No matter how close the deadline gets, no matter how real a no-deal exit becomes, she will carry on regardless.

There is a way to stop this. On Thursday May 3 in the council elections we must go to the ballot box to send a powerful message that May must not be allowed to carry on regardless, or carry on at all.

Ten Conservative councils have all their seats in play. Another 26 have votes in half or a third of their seats. This is a chance to not just send out a strong message but to actually topple May and increase the chances of another general election (and with it, hopefully, a second referendum).

If we don’t act now the way is clear for May to lead us through a formal exit next March, through transition and then to a full departure all before the next general election, which does not have to be held until May 2022. By then the damage will have been done.

The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday April 17. I urge New European readers with children and grandchildren coming of age to make sure they are able to vote. I urge all TNE readers to vote for the party they think is most likely to defeat the Tory in their area.

May’s blinkered reign can not be allowed to carry on regardless.

Thomas Harris, Oxford

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

• Subscribe to The New European from just £1 for six editions

• Events: How you can help the grassroots anti-Brexit campaigns