I WOULD like to express my concerns through your newspaper to the Conservative voters who will be voting for a new leader and consequently Prime Minister of this country.

“Think not what Boris Johnson can do for you but by not voting for him what you can do for your country.”

I believe that if you are going to be Prime Minister of this country your personal life and how you live it, as well as your competence as a politician, is important and will reflect on the many decisions you as Prime Minister will have to make, and I don’t think that Mr Johnson will be right or have the political skills for this important position.

Whoever becomes Prime Minister at this time will have a very difficult time trying to convince MPs of all parties to accept Brexit whatever the deal or all the other problems we have in this country.

I think that Mr Hunt would be a better choice of the two.

Ken McIntyre, Norton

Righting wrongs

MR Wright invited me to put him right on Brexit – a tall order, as there’s so much that’s all wrong in his letter, but I’m happy to give it a go.

We did have a vote three years ago, which is no reason not to have a second vote now we know what’s on the table.

Boris and his mates won’t hear of allowing the people another say – the reason is they’re afraid of the answer.

Brexit – “the will of the people” – was only ever the will of some of the people, and the evidence shows that now more of us want to stay than go.

British Steel is in meltdown, the car industry faces crisis and the list of well-paid jobs lost is mounting before we’ve even left the EU.

Brexit cheerleader Sir James Dyson is putting his money where his mouth is – which as it turns out is Singapore, as he slings aside his HQ in Britain.

Singapore is among the 70 countries with which the EU has trade deals. We are tearing up those deals – for the freedom to do trade deals.

Up to now a fraction of that number have been lined up, even though they account for 11 per cent of our trade, on top of the 43 per cent of our exports that go to the EU.

Our trading partners will take a hit with Brexit – but for each of them the damage is limited to trade with one country – the UK – for us the loss is multiplied 27 times.

As for the electoral drubbing Mr Wright confidently predicts for the Liberal Democrats, he’s again all wrong.

A guide can be found in the latest elections with voters choosing 16 new Lib Dem MEPs, and more than 700 new councillors.

Cllr Dinah Keal, Norton

Control squirrels

I WRITE with reference to the letter in your paper from Tracy Battensby headed “sign the Petition”.

This was sent in response to the Government’s intention to make it illegal for vets or rescue organisations to rehabilitate and release greys squirrels.

I feel very strongly that some of the points made must be corrected.

I am chairman of a red squirrel conservation trust charity desperately trying to conserve red squirrels. Currently the only way of doing this is by removing grey squirrels.

Firstly, the red squirrels in the north of England and Scotland are native. They are indigenous, not descendants from animals reintroduced from Scandinavia as Ms Battensby claims.

Secondly, while I accept that unfortunately, red squirrels road sense is not great and road-kill is a factor as too to a small extent is loss of habitat, the primary cause of the disappearance of reds is in part competition from grey squirrels but in particular the virus almost all greys in England carry.

As far as we know, this is almost always lethal to reds and as I write, we are experiencing the worst outbreak of squirrel pox for many years. There is no evidence for a build-up of immunity.

Legally grey squirrels are not allowed to be released into the wild, it therefore follows that vets and rescue organisations should obey the law.

If we want red squirrels, then greys have got to be controlled - it is as simple as that.

I should, of course, also add that grey squirrels do enormous tree damage particularly to young hardwoods and are known predators of birds eggs and chicks.

Robert Benson, Tirril, Penrith