THE recent interventions of Tony Blair and John Major in the Brexit debate is anathema to some and a breath of fresh air to others, including myself, and probably many farmers and businesses.

This means that all living Prime Ministers since we joined the EEC have spoken out strongly against leaving the EU. A large proportion of MPs voted “remain “in last year’s referendum.

In the debate on Article 50 to trigger the EU leaving process, Ken Clarke made an impassioned speech, asking other MPs to vote with their consciences, but few did.

Immediately before and after the referendum, nearly all the many opinion polls were in favour of “remain”.

So why did the opposite result occur in the referendum itself?

The most common explanation is that many “remainers” did not make time to vote on that working day as the polls indicated that the result was a foregone conclusion. (Because a large proportion of younger voters were for “remain” it has been calculated that the same voting profile would result in a “remain” majority from 2021 in any case, yet the leaving process will only be complete by 2020!)

Theresa May is leader of the party which won the last General Election, so she is free to carry out whatever policy she chooses, and has some of the most vociferous proponents of leaving the EU in her Cabinet. But she should recognise that the majority of voters probably don’t want Brexit, let alone a “hard Brexit”, so she should not keep claiming that she is carrying out the will of the British people.

Your correspondent George Hayes (D&S Times, Mar 3) summarised well the danger of considering only the referendum result in this important decision. Opinion polls have their failings, but they include samples from those who didn’t vote.

Mrs May wants to keep good trade relations with the rest of Europe. But there is nothing to stop EU members from moving their trade to other members of the EU.

Many British farmers trade with other EU countries. We are only 25 miles from the nearest EU country, and we are unlikely to find suitable non-EU countries to trade with for products such as milk.

It is also becoming harder to attract the immigrants we do need, partly because of the unfortunate atmosphere which the proposed stronger control of immigration has created, and also because Mrs May has not yet given assurances to those immigrants already here that they can stay.

The many British nationals living in other EU countries are also left in a state of uncertainty. Now that we are clearer about the implications of the actions proposed, is not the only solution a second referendum at some stage?

JH Robinson, Morton-on-Swale