Letters: Why even exasperated Conservatives should be wary of Nigel Farage

SIR – Nigel Farage’s stated aim is to destroy the Conservative Party – even, it appears, those elements within it that share many of his values and aims – despite the fact he has no hope of establishing Reform UK as an effective party in Parliament in the short term (“Reform would stop small boats in 100 days, says Farage”, telegraph.co.uk, June 17). His victory would be a self-serving, Pyrrhic one.

In pursuit of his own ambitions he is helping to ensure a Labour majority, which, should it be on the scale widely predicted, would allow fundamental changes to be made to our constitution that even Mr Farage would be unable to reverse.

A more mature approach would be to work with the Tory party to avoid the expected outcome of the imminent election.

Don Hamilton
York

SIR  – I have just watched Nigel Farage and Richard Tice present the Reform “contract”. It is far and away the best conservative manifesto I have heard in many years.

Geoffrey Reynolds
Camborne, Cornwall

SIR – A lifelong Conservative voter, I have found the lure of Reform almost impossible to resist – but I’ll manage it.

A revolution in the Conservative Party cannot be achieved, at least for now, from the outside; it can only be achieved by Tory MPs. So the country must have as many of these MPs as possible – not just to save us from the horrors of Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, but also to create a group among themselves strong enough and determined enough to bring about the change we so desperately need.

Gordon Brown
Grassington, North Yorkshire

SIR – Lord Cameron says that Nigel Farage is trying to destroy the Conservative Party. But that has already been achieved – by the Parliamentary Conservative Party, over the course of the last parliament.

Peter Madden
Knutsford, Cheshire

SIR – Tim Stanley (Comment, June 17) is spot on. When David Cameron became Conservative leader, my late husband and I knew he would be useless. We both left the party.

It’s no good various pundits blaming Reform for the Tories’ problems; they started with “Call me Dave”. Rishi Sunak’s decision to bring him back showed very poor judgment.

Mary Wiedman
Piccotts End, Hertfordshire

SIR – Philip Duly (Letters, June 15) is suspicious of Reform’s polling, as he has only met one voter willing to voice support for Nigel Farage. But for many Mr Farage is a guilty pleasure. They won’t admit to being fans, but will support his party when the day comes.

Gavin Littaur
London NW4

Turning off oil and gas

SIR – Labour seems intent on virtue-signalling at the expense of the economy. Take the manifesto pledge to stop all future North Sea oil and gas exploration.

Currently, around 75 per cent of the UK’s energy is supplied by fossil fuels. Restricting oil and gas production will have absolutely no impact on UK demand. The need for fossil fuels will only change when better alternatives are available to alter behaviour. We are decades away from having these and the associated infrastructure to make them attractive for industry and consumers.

Labour’s plans for the North Sea will result in a rapid drop in UK production and an increase in imports – which has already started. This will lead to a reduction in tax revenues, losses of industry jobs, a decline in energy security and higher emissions from imports.

Murray Chancellor
Alton, Hampshire

SIR – Labour’s ban on new North Sea oil fields is an act of self-harm. All workers need to stand together in solidarity with those employed in North Sea oil.

Oil is a basic industrial feedstock – no mere fuel. Manufacturing and maintenance of green technologies, such as railways and wind turbines, require oil. Cutting North Sea oil will simply mean more imports – at prices determined abroad – and the loss of 200,000 jobs (report, June 17).

Labour’s opposition to proposed new coke mines in Cumbria and South Wales is similarly counter-productive. Coke is needed for steel – and steel is needed for green technologies.

John Barstow
Pulborough, West Sussex

Inspirational Princess

SIR – Wow – what a wonderful Trooping the Colour (report, June 16).

Thank you to the Princess of Wales. I was recently diagnosed with cancer, and she has given people like me hope and inspiration to carry on.

Jacquie Broadway
Rogate, West Sussex

Deaf people’s rights

SIR – On July 5, either a re-elected or a newly elected prime minister will make a speech to the country. This will be a significant national moment – one that should be accessible to every voter in the UK, including the 87,000 members of the deaf community who use British Sign Language (BSL).

Deaf people have been excluded by a lack of BSL interpretation at broadcasts from No 10. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People has tried to work with the Government to ensure that access is provided. If no interpreter is by the lectern on July 5, the right of deaf people to have information at the same time as everyone else will have been denied.

I have written to Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, offering them the use of our interpreter for a victory speech. It will be the start of a new chapter in our country’s history, and they cannot lock the deaf community out.

Harriet Oppenheimer
CEO, Royal National Institute for Deaf People
Peterborough

A mug’s game

SIR – Is there a way, without seeming insensitive or ungrateful, of letting your offspring know that, even if you are the greatest dad in the world (and thank goodness that’s not open to objective scrutiny), you probably have enough mugs to show for it by now?

Mark Rayner
Eastbourne, East Sussex

Labour silence on IPP

SIR – Labour’s manifesto is a significant disappointment, notably for its silence on the critical issue of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences – a glaring omission, since IPPs are a legacy of the last Labour government.

Today, 2,796 IPP prisoners are behind bars, despite the sentence being abolished in 2012. Of these, 99 per cent are serving time beyond their original sentences, and more than 700 have served a decade past their tariff. This indefensible situation has led to more than 100 suicides among IPP prisoners – that we know of.

Labour’s manifesto acknowledges that prisons in England and Wales are in crisis, yet it ignores an issue of the party’s own making, which, if addressed, would reduce the prison population. By not committing itself to IPP reform, Labour is ignoring a clear path to easing overcrowding, which would also restore justice to those unfairly trapped by indefinite sentences.

With Sir Keir Starmer’s legal background, you’d expect Labour to champion the cause, but his silence suggests a reluctance to confront difficult issues. He says his is the party of change, but this shows there’s not much between Labour and the Tories.

Henry Rossi
Bristol

Policing animals

SIR – When I joined the Met police in 1970, the recruit’s bible, the Instruction Book, explained how to stop a runaway horse, which involved running in the same direction as the animal, grabbing its bridle and coming to a gentle stop. Guidance on other large quadrupeds was sadly lacking.

If the cow in Feltham had run into a child or a frail elderly person last Friday, it could have caused serious injury or worse (“Officer who rammed calf removed from duties”, report, June 17). Between 2018 and 2022, more than 30 people were killed by cows. The suspension of an officer for using his initiative in trying to prevent harm to the public is disproportionate.

Roy Ramm
Great Dunmow, Essex

Wilson’s wit

SIR – Robin Platt (Letters, June 13) reminds us of Harold Wilson’s wit. In 1966, he asked reporters if they had “noticed how England only wins the World Cup under a Labour government”. Will Sir Keir Starmer be able to say something similar on July 14?

Robert Culshaw
Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire

Red alert for emblems of British life

SIR – I abhor the numerous potholes found on too many roads (Letters, June 15) but there is another thing that upsets me as I drive around: the general state of postboxes and many of the traditional telephone boxes still in place. Few are vibrant pillar-box red anymore; many are a weathered, washed-out shade of pink.

Both BT and Royal Mail seem to have given up any pretence of maintaining these emblems of British life.

John Edmondson
Ferndown, Dorset

The victims of a VAT raid on private schools

SIR – Jo Thomson, the headmistress of Clayesmore School, is right to worry about the wider economic impact of charging VAT on independent school fees (report, June 15).

Many independent schools spend between 70 and 80 per cent of their revenue on salaries, so any sharp fall in income is likely to lead to a reduction in the employment of cooks, cleaners, gardeners, ground staff, administrators and teachers: the very working people whose interests Labour claims to represent.

Independent schools are significant employers, especially in more rural areas. It is not clear where alternative employment might be found, nor how the ensuing hole in local economies will be plugged.

What Labour fails to see is that, in this context, independent schools are actually engines for the redistribution of wealth.

Stephen Seidler
Little Downham, Cambridgeshire

SIR – Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, says private healthcare is a Tory levy (report, June 15), insofar as patients have already paid for NHS treatment and opt to pay again by choosing the private sector.

I struggle to see how he regards this as unfair when Labour is about to impose VAT on private school fees. Those who send their children to a private school have already contributed to the state system while freeing up a space in it for another child.

Will Labour eventually impose VAT on private healthcare fees, too?

Deborah Maingay
Long Ditton, Surrey

SIR – Labour is offering what it says is a manifesto for wealth creation. But do its candidates understand how wealth is created? Those I have studied so far appear to have no meaningful connection with wealth creation, because they have been employed mainly in the public sector. Such jobs depend principally on the taxation of private-sector profits. All the evidence suggests that the policies outlined in Labour’s manifesto will crush the private sector, so has Sir Keir Starmer discovered some other source of wealth creation that he is intending to reveal in due course?

Kevin Duffy
Manchester

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