I was disappointed to find that Boris Johnson has decided to politicise the death of a young man who was dedicating his life to the help of others. Unlike Boris I will abide by the wishes of his family and not talk about the problems the criminal justice system faces in dealing with dangerous prisoners.

What I cannot let go unchallenged is Boris’ assertion that Parliament in its dealing with Brexit was preventing the normal process of government.

Let me remind him that we have had Conservative-led administrations for the last nine years. In 2016 David Cameron secured a Conservative majority government.

It was not Parliament that forced Cameron to resign, it was not Parliament that forced Theresa May to call an election in 2017, it was not Parliament that called for a change of Conservative party leadership earlier this year and it was not Parliament that prorogued Parliament in September. No, the waste of Parliamentary time is all down to the Conservative party.

It was not Parliament that turned up empty handed to start the withdrawal negotiations with a well briefed Michel Barnier. It was not Parliament running the negotiations. Once those negotiations had been completed and we were presented with a withdrawal agreement it was Boris and his friends in the Conservative party that felt entitled to vote against the agreement. A privilege that he seems to think extends no further than himself and his coterie.

It sounds good getting Brexit done and uniting the country, but it is just an election slogan coined to win but not a sincere wish. If Boris had really wanted to unite the country instead of deciding that he and his friends were the sole arbiters of what Brexit meant he would have argued that Parliament should have been involved from the start. That finding a way to leave the EU that healed the divisions of the referendum should be the driving force of Brexit.

Wasn’t the campaign to leave the EU all about sovereignty? That sovereignty lies in Parliament and it is not Parliament that has frustrated Brexit but Parliament that has been frustrated. Frustrated by a disunited and squabbling Conservative party more interested in power than uniting the country.

Michael Gove was correct in his assessment in 2016, that Boris was not fit to run the country; his conclusion then still stands.

Paul Macer-Wright (Monmouth)