Kim Leadbeater deserves to be Batley and Spen’s MP – Yorkshire Post Letters

IN your report on the Batley and Spen by-election (The Yorkshire Post, June 11), the Labour candidate, Kim Leadbeater insists the election is not about the popularity of national politicians and she refuses to be distracted by any outsiders who suggest otherwise.

She is determined to champion real devolution to the people of Yorkshire. There is no doubt that she has local credentials second to none, and is focused on shifting power away from Whitehall and Westminster into the hands of local people.

Kim has lived and worked in Batley and Spen all her life. She is tough, plain-spoken, often blunt, and famously on BBC Newsnight said that in Yorkshire “you keep your gob shut” if you have nothing to say.

Her sister, the MP Jo Cox who was brutally murdered in Birstall by a far-right extremist on this day in 2016, worked in Brussels at the European Parliament before she became an MP and was a passionate pro- European.

I went to the same school as Kim and Jo in Heckmondwike and was a contemporary of her parents at the school.

Since Jo’s death, the family have shown great courage and dignity and Kim has devoted herself to campaigning against loneliness, and for a calmer and non-violent society.

From: Dick Lindley, Altofts, Normanton.

IT has become patently apparent to any fair-minded English person that French President Emmanuel Macron, his close friend Angela Merkel and EU commission President Ursula von der Leyen are intent on punishing this great nation for having the temerity to escape from the European Union.

For them, the G7 meeting was a golden opportunity to further punish and humiliate the UK. I suppose, in reality, they are terrified that other freedom- loving states may well emulate our daring escape, which would undoubtedly cause the EU to implode.

I hope Boris Johnson stands his ground, defends our freedoms and tell them exactly what they can do with their idiotic rules and regulations.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

NORTHERN Ireland was always going to be a Brexit sticking point – it is why Tony Blair and Sir John Major made a joint visit there during the referendum campaign.

What a shame Boris Johnson is not investing as much time in the peace process as they, and Gordon Brown in fairness, did.

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