Theresa May's reshuffle proves she is not strong and stable

Readers of The New European react through our letters pages to this week’s cabinet reshuffle.

Theresa May’s baffling treatment of Justine Greening is good for our cause. As a Remainer with a small majority in a massively pro-Remain area, she is now free to make the case for Remain from the backbenches and, more importantly, in the TV studios.

Her dismissal by May only proves how poor the Prime Minister is at running things.

Marc Hammond, Belfast

There is good news from the reshuffle in the appointment of David Lidington to the Cabinet Office; chairing key Cabinet committees. He has many political skills, and can be expected to work with Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd and others to secure a sensible Brexit.

Discussion seems to be coalescing around the often sidelined customs union. Effectively continued membership of even the current customs union is quite possible, and is probably the most achievable form of soft Brexit, however imperfect.

It would infuriate the extremists, which is usually a good sign. It would save the day, as a short to medium-term fix; and enable pro-Europeans to re-group and re-build.

John Gemmell, Wem

The Brexiteer Toby Young was right to resign from his role at the Office for Students but that is little consolation when the Three Stooges of Brexit, Johnson, Davis and Fox, retain their roles in Theresa May’s botched reshuffle.

Losing Young while keeping these three is somewhat akin to putting the getaway driver on trial but letting the safecrackers go free.

Karen Daly, Brixton

The news I feared has happened with Suella Fernandes, MP for Fareham, being appointed under-secretary of state at the Department for Exiting the EU.

Prior to the referendum, Ms Fernandes delayed telling her constituents which side of the argument she was on before declaring that she was in favour of leaving. However, she admitted to me in a letter that ‘there were arguments for staying in the EU’, but this position has now been totally abandoned and she has become the hardest Brexiter of all. I just wonder if this is her true conviction or a decision made in the interest of climbing the political greasy pole.

In July 2017, I wrote to Ms Fernandes and listed nine rights and privileges I now enjoy as a citizen of the EU and requested that she worked to preserve them, if and when Brexit occurred.

In her reply she ignored the points I made and delivered a lecture, informing me that ‘there must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it by the back door and no second referendum’. Apparently, Brexit will be delivered in ‘the national interest’ and the country will ‘regain its sovereignty in full’.

It does not seem to matter that half of us are having our rights and way of life trampled on. The battle to stop this lunacy must continue in 2018.

William D Taylor, Fareham

Imagine my surprise that the strong and stable Prime Minister turns out to be weak and wobbly when someone refuses to obey her orders.

Taking Jeremy Hunt as an example, I suggest a few of us go round to Number 10 and tell her we’ve decided this Brexit thing won’t fly after all and she needs to think again.

The best-case scenario is that Brexit is cancelled; the worst-case is that one of us ends up as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

David Bergman, Hackney

When even a serial failure like the gaffe-prone Esther McVey can get a job in the Cabinet and an utter disaster like Jeremy Hunt is promoted, how bad must Jacob Rees-Mogg actually be?

Alex Jordan

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