• STEPHEN Southam challenges me to be specific about two things: how money printing can generate sustainable economic growth and which plan to end austerity the Tory government abandoned after the EU referendum (Harsh reality that would face McDonnell on entering Number 11, January 19).

My disagreement with Mr Southam is not about the need for sound money. Whether or not you have sound money is irrelevant to the problems posed by Brexit.

The Tory government recognised the existence of those problems when George Osborne was sacked. With him went the plan to end austerity sooner rather than later.

Last September, three pro-Brexit organisations (Leave Means Leave, Labour Leave and Economists for Free Trade) published a paper entitled “New Model Economy for a Post-Brexit Britain”, in which they say that Brexit can bring benefits only if the government adopts the economic policies that they specify.

When read alongside another paper published by Economists for Free Trade at the same time (“From Project Fear to Project Prosperity”), we can see the Brexit plan: lower food prices but large-scale unemployment in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors and removal or weakening of regulations that protect workers against exploitation and the public from environmental pollution – and we have to wait five to 10 years before we get “the full gains”, if we do at all.

I am all in favour of lower food prices but I don’t want them at the expense of fellow citizens who have to lose their jobs and suffer years more of austerity so that I can save a few pounds on my groceries.

PAUL LASOK
Ellington Street, N7