Cannington resident and EU supporter Roy Pumfrey was pleased to see Bridgwater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger tell his constituents how he had voted on Theresa May's Brexit deal, having held his cards close to his chest for some time now:

AT last! After pussy footing around throughout the 2016 Referendum campaign, unable to let curious constituents have his take on which way to vote, Ian Liddell-Grainger MP has come clean (MP’s take on Brexit and Commons chaos, Mercury, March 19).

The last veil has fallen, and IL-G is now exposed as a gung-ho hard Brexiter who would happily vote for no deal with the EU.

If he thinks matters are confusing and chaotic now, he will soon need to go and have a nice lie down in a darkened room.

If the withdrawal agreement is ever reached, that is the easy part of leaving the EU.

It took the UK 11 years to negotiate its way into the Common Market.

How could anyone ever imagine it would take a fraction of that time to renegotiate the deals drawn up during our membership?

Here in Cannington, a village of just 3,500 souls, it’s taken over five years to get anywhere close to something as seemingly straightforward as a Neighbourhood Plan.

Only the gullible could believe that a matter as complicated as leaving the EU could all be nicely done and dusted in just 24 months.

So why was IL-G squirming to avoid telling us in 2016 which way he was secretly desperate for us to vote?

Could it have been anything to do with not wanting to be seen to be biting the EDF hand of the French government handing out largesse around his prized Hinkley Point C project?

With his own Government’s support for local projects diminished by austerity measures, IL-G clearly couldn’t be seen to support severing links with European investors.

I’ve just had a poll card for local elections on May 2.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able, at the same time, to vote in a national referendum on whether to leave the EU, knowing what the deal would be, or to recognize the Brexit debate has been a colossal waste of time and energy and we should remain in the EU?

ROY PUMFREY

Cannington