• THE Brexit process will be long, slow, and dangerously uncertain and, ultimately, will not solve any of Britain’s problems, or calm the fears and anger of its citizens.

Their key concern was immigration, and was more a reflection of worries about Muslims entering Britain. Most are not coming from the European Union, and most are hard-working and decent people.

But the main fuel for the anger which led to Brexit in some areas comes from the fact that almost all workers have seen wage levels stagnate for a decade or more. This anger has been intensified by the Tories’ axing of vital benefits supporting people in need, families with children and even the sick and disabled.

Just last week it was reported that Debenhams has been castigated for paying less than the miserly minimum wage to over 12,000 of its staff. Why has the government not been hounding lousy employers with the same zeal they have used on the poor and others? If all workers received a living wage, just over £10 an hour in London, the benefits bill would be reduced much more rapidly and without the Tory nastiness.

Now, under the Tories’ Brexit deal, we may end up in some bargain-basement tax hell, with those at the top swanning in and out of London to check on their cash-boxes-in-the-sky flats, while the rest of the country suffers even greater deprivation as taxation funds dry up. In the new “open Britain”, marooned in a world where even Starbucks can tell governments what tax it will pay, when and where, prime minister May will be utterly powerless.

We may be kicked awake from this idiocy soon, but it will be too late. Brexit will be a disaster. If MPs cannot see this and do their damnedest to stop it, they will be failing in their duties.

DAVID REED
Address supplied