I’m truly appalled at Boris Johnson’s latest move to divert attention from his failings as Prime Minister by appointing Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay MP as his Chief of Staff - his most senior advisor.

Mr Barclay’s first public pronouncement has been to write in the Daily Telegraph: “Now it is a priority to restore a smaller State - both financially and in taking a step back from people’s lives”. In other words it’s back to austerity with all the misery that this will involve for most of us.

He must live in a different world to me because the people I speak to in Watford want the opposite - a better funded NHS, better funded schools and better social care. Who are these people demanding a return to austerity because I don’t meet them.

It’s a pity local MPs don’t spend more time finding out what their constituents actually think about these issues and then acting accordingly rather than blindly following party orders.

Philip Parry

South-West Herts Labour Party