Chris Sumner wrote (Rich and powerful backers, Letters, November 14) that the rich and powerful backed the leave campaign. But most MPs, most peers, the business chiefs of the CBI, most of the City of London big shots, David Cameron, Sir Richard Branson, Tony Blair, all backed the pro-EU campaign. The US finance firms Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley each gave half a million to the pro-EU campaign. Doesn’t Mr Sumner think they are all rich and powerful?

The leave campaign spent £13,436,241; the pro-EU campaign spent £19,070,566, according to the Electoral Commission. So which campaign got far more money to spend?

Britain had twelve referendums between 1973 and 2016. After all twelve, British governments calmly carried out the policy that won the larger number of votes. By contrast, the EU has lost nine referendums since 1992 and did not respect one of them. Each time it called for a rerun.

The constitutional convention in the UK is that the Government carries out the referendum decisions reached by the majority of voters. A constitutional convention is a non-legal, but nonetheless binding, rule of constitutional behaviour. By contrast, the EU convention is that the EU carries out only those majority decisions it likes, and tries to overturn those majority decisions it disagrees with.

As President Juncker said when the French people came to vote on the Lisbon Treaty, “If it’s a yes, we will say ‘on we go’, and if it’s a no, we will say ‘we continue’.”

The EU routinely refuses to enact any referendum decision that it doesn’t like, an approach its friends in Britain also embrace,

Will Podmore

Clavering Road, Wanstead