I THANK Robert Turner, Colin Bennett and Amelia Washbourne for their letters (Letters, November 23).

Unfortunately, all are mistaken about me, in different ways.

In response to Mr Turner, I don’t think I have ever missed a Remembrance Day, either as a candidate or MP. In this case, I had to leave on a ministerial visit to the USA on November 12, but I was honoured to be present at the actual Remembrance Day ceremony at the Market House in Ross on November 11. Former MEP and councillor Anthea McIntyre kindly agreed to lay the wreath in Ross on my behalf.

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Replying to Mr Bennett, I am not sure I have ever thrown what he describes as a “hissy fit” – this is an invention on his part. I have in fact had a series of principled public disagreements with two different Prime Ministers, over damage to the British constitution in 2012, the vote to bomb Syria in 2013, and the Rwanda policy and much else in 2022.

My goal as a minister has always been to advance the public good, nationally or for this county. That is true whether I was managing the furlough scheme, or making the case within government for the Stronger Towns Fund, for our university project, or for many tens of millions of pounds in other public investment that we have raised locally since 2010.

As for the Wye, as readers will know, I have campaigned on this issue for years. I can now question ministers directly, as I questioned the Chancellor about the Wye in the Commons last week.

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Finally, Ms Washbourne is kind to touch on whatever talent I may have, but her email somehow neglects to mention the combined effects of the pandemic, a sharp spike in global energy prices, a general rise in inflation and a very serious war in Europe.

Any one of these issues is and would always be a major concern for any government. The UK is battling through them all at once at present, in many ways rather effectively.

JESSE NORMAN

MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire